1950: late summer season on Cape Cod. Michael, a 10-year-old boy, is
spending the summer with Richie and his glamorous but troubled mother.
Left to their own devices, the boys meet a couple living nearby--the
artists Jo and Edward Hopper--and an unlikely friendship is forged. She,
volatile, passionate and often irrational, suffers bouts of obsessive
sexual jealousy. He, withdrawn and unwell, depressed by his inability to
work, becomes besotted by Richie's frail and beautiful Aunt Katherine
who has not long to live--an infatuation he shares with young Michael. A
novel of loneliness and regret, the legacy of World War II and the
ever-changing concept of the American Dream.