The son of a rabbi and a budding astronomer, Gabriel Geismer is struggling on his way from youth to manhood in the 1970s when he falls in love with the esteemed and beguiling Hundert family, different in every way from his own. But the Hunderts also embody a complex and far from ideal dynamic. A funny, robust novel, rich in the enduring values endemic to powerful fiction - the exploration of what is hidden, unexpectedness and the authorial skill of laying bare the fundamentals of life.