Iowa, 1965. For small-town lawyer and part-time investigator Sam McCain, the free love era isn’t all that free or loving. The alcoholic judge he works for just finished a stint in rehab; the beautiful colleague he’d been pining for has gone back to her husband; and an old friend recently came home from Vietnam in a coffin. It all makes guys like Harrison Doran—the handsome, outspoken antiwar activist who stands to inherit millions—difficult to stomach.
So when local war hero Lou Bennett is murdered after an altercation at a protest rally and Harrison is arrested for the crime, it’s Sam’s job to defend the loudmouthed ladies’ man. But Sam soon discovers there’s more to Lou’s past than the time he spent overseas. And as he watches his provincial hometown of Black River Falls transform to the sounds of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the Beatles, Sam begins to wonder if the good old days were ever all that great.