After numerous infidelities and a messy break-up, a burnt-out attorney joins the Peace Corps to reform and redeem himself. He finds peace in the serene plains and mountains of Tanzania, teaching villagers to fish--until he becomes attached to one of his young charges who's about to undergo a barbaric ritual to please her fiance.

Cage, Nick, and Harper appear to be the archetypal sons of the ideal American family of the 1960s and 70s. The firstborn, Cage, is the golden boystar athlete and scholar, adventurous, handsome, and preternaturally popular; Nick is the quiet, late-blooming middle son; and Harper, 10 years younger, chases after his older siblings, trying not to be left out. With the tragic death of Nick in the 1980s, the breakdown of the family begins. Cages guilt triggers incipient mental illness and the next two decades find him swinging between mania and depression, between grim institutions and comebacks....