In the spring of 1993, after nine years as an architect in New York City, Wade Mayfield returns to North Carolina. This is no ordinary move; for Wade, at the age of thirty-three, has come back to his father's house to die of AIDS. Wade's parents have recently separated; but for the remaining months of their only child's life, they and their friends come together in steady care for Wade and in the knowledge and sustenance they gain from his patience and his undaunted determination to die as himself. When death comes, they are slowly amazed to learn of the ongoing mystery Wade has arranged to reveal after his depature--a mystery that promises to continue the proud vitality of a family that had seemed destined for extinction. A powerful exploration of such timeless matters as love, family loyalty and suffering, race, freedom, and duty, "The Promise of Rest" concludes Reynolds Price's epic Mayfield family trilogy with a passionate embrace of life in a world that promises to outlast us all.