The novel is set in Boston and Provincetown in 1973. Neil McGuire, a prison counselor, is haunted by the death of his younger brother in the Vietnam War. His mother hasn’t spoken to him since the funeral and his relationship with his girlfriend is on the rocks. When an inmate Neil has been seeing in counseling is murdered, he withholds information from a state police detective to cover up an error of judgment. This deception triggers a chain of events endangering both Neil and a woman he meets, a German divorcee with a troubled past.

SPOILER ALERT: If you read fiction expecting to be soothed by happy endings, all conflcts resolved, don't read this story.