Novel set in Keene, New Hampshire between the 1950s and early 2000s. Young baseball prospect Jack Landry comes of age with the Catholic sensibility and working-class ethos of his upbringing. Landry confronts stereotype, forbidden love's trials, and the perils of his personal success under the looming ethereal presences of an ancient event and his tragically killed Memere. A man's life between New England and New Orleans, configured through the guiding motto of his youth: "Never back down, never instigate."