In the community of Celadon (on a Caribbean island) the residents - family, friends and neighbors - helped each other, shared food, melee, and responsibilities. On weekends they drank a little, quarreled some, cooked big meals, and attended church. The community was unique on the island, which was experiencing the heavy hand of developers as it made the transition from agriculture to industry - tourism industry. The two centers of social activity in the community, other than Church were Pasture and The Corner. Pasture was the place for sports, meetings, revivals and nocturnal erotic adventures. The corner the place for the antics of Chatterboxes, jokesters and scandalmongers, for insinuation, gossip and minding peoples business. Oxy lived in Celadon, where his life was stalled by the island's modernizations of the 1960's. Oxy struggled with the changing times and with the conflict between responsibility and arithmetic - the result of an infrequent paycheck. He had four children by three women, twin boys with Rachael, his first love, but her manner could be frosty. Oxy was tethered to the civic minded Beady, his best friend, who had an uneven relationship with his woman Ruth. A union man, Beady was a vigorous advocate of workers' rights, and a leader in the Celadon community. Oxy began courting Tricia, who had to endure the complaints of her snappish aunt, about her nascent relationship with Oxy; complaints that made her walk out of her aunt's home and into one of Oxy's calamities. Fall-out from managing a picket that turned violent, Tricia's worry, and some disturbing information from his reclusive Godmother disquieted Beady. Beady stunned his friend Oxy with a passionate confrontation. He began his harangue in anger then switched to a cold sneer, then to sarcasm, using words that sliced into Oxy's soul and took him to a dark uncomfortable place."