Vietnam. The Bay of Pigs. A November afternoon in Dallas pierced by gunshots. Robert Vaughan's eighth title in the American Chronicles series opens with the calamitous changes that define a generation and bid good-bye to innocence. With the charismatic young president in office, idealism and optimism run free, the youths of America believe in all possibilities. Deon Booker, a proud African-American, joins Mississippi's Freedom Riders on an unforgettable journey to a shocking revelation. His companion, heiress Alicia Canfield, finds no protection in her new law degree from the horrors of racial hatred and mob aggression. In Hollywood, screen gem Marcella Mills sees only the excitement not the risk of a clandestine affair that must be buried in official secrecy. Half a world away, Special Forces officer Jared Hawkins finds his conscience and his soul in peril carrying out orders in the jungle hell of Vietnam, as he joins in the loss of innocence of an entire generation.