A story about perception and misperception, about the daily intensities of adolescence - and the daily disappointments - it is a haunting novel of a young man's first introduction to sex, love, and death.

It is spring 1962, and Paul Werth is a junior at Highgate, a prestigious prep school on the East Coast. Paul is smart, well adjusted, adept at school and sports; but beneath the surface there lurk tensions and strains that threaten to tear him apart - the most disruptive of which is the death of his father the year before.

Still coping with that loss, Paul must sort out for himself, not always with great success, the difference between truth and appearance, while dealing with academic pressures, a faltering baseball career, a friend who may not be much of a friend, one young woman who may not match her reputation, and another who may not return his affection.