A postcard from a friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birthplace, where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough.

"Elegant and entertaining . . . Every scene [is] adroitly staged and each effect precisely acomplished." —The Atlantic