Every day in the summer, Tommy Linden cycles through Toronto from his studio to paint portraits of tourists at the harbourfront with his broken unwrapped pieces of pastel. He passes friends along his route as this small, unassuming man has touched many lives. He's genuine, caring and generous to a fault. In contrast, his sister Kitty David, is greedy, grasping and attempting to evict her own brother from the building he lives in. If she can make money, that's all she's interested in. Not only is she going too far with Tommy, but in her role as head honcho of the Harbourfront Park, she's starting to go behind the backs of local concessionaires and stooping to extortion. She needs to be taught a lesson and this is where Lee Rauber, manager of Maggie Good Head's Pub, comes in. She's Tommy's best friend, and is energetic and imaginative, despite dealing with a deteriorating marriage and feeling that she's trapped in her career. But Kitty is a tough adversary and ther's a lot at stake. This novel is a beautiful evocation of life on the harbourfront of Toronto with its myriad of characters and their relationships. Tommy Linden is the uniting factor who brings these broken unwrapped pieces of people's lives into a rich, fascinating and humourous tapestry.