The novel is a sprawling work, with over 600 pages, and covers many of the themes Shaw returns to again and again in all of his fiction – Americans living as expatriates in Europe, the McCarthy era, children trying to break away from the kind of life lived by their parents, social and political issues of capitalism, and the pain of relationships. On the very first page Shaw subtly telegraphs the sad ending of the story, in the same way that the first scene of a film will often quote the last scene. Gretchen Jordache has an affair with Teddy Boylan, the head of the firm she works for, a man considerably older than herself, and this sets off the rest of the story action. Her brothers Rudolph and Thomas eventually become engaged with Boylan in various ways, and it is his impact on all three that initially propels them outside the little upstate New York hamlet where their parents scrape by with their bakery. Boylan is their first genuine experience with an adult other than their parents.

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