"In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett...

In 1954, Emilia Winthrop, a professor at Wellesley College, is summoned to CIA headquarters, where she is forced to confront the harrowing consequences of the summer she exposed a traitor amongst the New England elite and a choice that could destroy her chance for redemption all over again.