It is the summer of 1969 the hottest, sweatiest summer in history, the American summer in the American year in the American century the USA is about to land a man on the moon and the Vietnam War is ripping the country to pieces, setting sons against fathers, fathers against sons. The Woodstock festival is in full swing and Norman Mailer is standing as candidate for Mayor of New York and against this backdrop, second rate detective Turner Raines finds himself investigating a series of murders that begin with the death of his best friend, a reporter on the Village Voice.