The period immediately following World War I was a turbulent time in the United States, filled with labor disputes, anarchist bombings, and the first Red Scare. Stephen Puter was retired and living in Berkeley, California next door to a first year law student. Despite their age difference, the two became close. During their many hours together, Puter told his neighbor the incredible story of his role at the center of the extensive land frauds in Oregon at the turn of the 20th century. Puter claimed he had paid his debt to society by helping the government bring to justice the leading politicians involved in the land frauds and promising no more fraudulent activity. Years later, when that law student, now retired himself, decides to write down Puter's story, his research reveals a different Puter. Now he wonders, who was the "real" Stephen Puter, his friend from forty years ago or the one in the sixty-year-old newspaper articles.