In 1964 Bob, an inexperienced young man, begins college in Washington, DC. He plans to follow in the footsteps of JFK. Instead, he is drawn into the Vietnam War. Early on Bob befriends Paul, an intellectual and anti-war activist. He sees Paul as a kindred spirit. Both Bob and Paul grope in the dark, trying to figure out how they fit into the larger world sexually and emotionally. The novel paints a vivid picture of how alienating it was to grow up not exclusively heterosexual in that era. Younger readers need to see how different and hostile the world was then.