Thirty-one year old attorney Baron Tapley suspends a burgeoning legal career to run against heavily-favored two-time incumbent David Westfall for Nebraska's Senate seat. Dubbed the "citizen candidate," Baron's brand of plain, authentic talk and unbridled idealism strikes a chord with a public all too familiar with the powerlessness and pessimism of the times. But Baron finds his ideals at odds with more than just the political establishment. While his crude, calculating opponent is missing in action on the campaign trail, Baron discovers that the world around him appears at a crossroads. With the economy worsening by the day, venerable American institutions are disappearing from the landscape: newspapers, public libraries, small towns, and the tightly-held promise of the American Dream. A stark commentary on media and politics, The Nostalgist is the story of an innocence lost and the murder of people's character; of citizens who live as strangers to one another, in a time of great confusion. Brimming with hope and idealism against the hard realities of moral ambiguity and personal hardship, The Nostalgist is a powerful, plainspoken story of human dignity.