Walk the Line is a story about how we got here, both personally and politically, told through the lives of its main characters - Sam, Michelle, Philip, Mary, Ed and Carol. It opens in the summer of 2005, in the week of the 7/7 bombings. These have a profound impact on Sam especially as he struggles to understand what they mean and their implications for the way he's lived his life. The narrative follows its characters' lives from 1968 - the most turbulent and traumatic year of the '60s - to 2008, when the world was caught between the hope of Obama's election and the unfolding abyss of the financial crisis. People change and memories blur with events and the passage of time. Relationships develop and bonds between them strengthen until, at the end, they are confronted by a discovery that forces them to question much of what they believe in.