This story takes place in Boston around 1919 and it tells the story of two families, one white and one black. Lehane gives the reader an insight to what it was like to be of the priviledged class, the poor white class, and the poor black class. These people are caught up in turbulant times that are filled with revoluntionaries, anarchists, immigrants, and ward bosses.

The story is woven around such notables as Babe Ruth, W.E.B. Du Bois, J. Edgar Hoover, and Calvin Coolidge.

The two main characters are Danny Coughlin and Luther Laurence.

Luther is a young black man trying to make his way in the world. He finds himself faced with a murder charge and flees to Boston and becomes friends with Danny.

Danny, who is white, and a member of the Boston Police Department is the son of a prominent police captain. These two young men f;ind themselves immersed in the politics of the time. They are involved in the beginnings of the NAACP, the just immerging union movement, and the hunt for violent radicals.

The story swings back and forth between the two main characters showing how they each become involved in the other's lives. They are also torn between their two loves. Luther has to leave his pregnant wife when he has to flee Boston, and Danny, who is in love with the household maid, finds she has a hidden past, and is thrown out of the house.

The book has everything in it that a reader could possibly hope for. It is far reaching in its depiction of the forces that defined this time in history, and is an absolutely stunning characterization of the people that lived through this period in history.