Former minor-league baseball player Jimmy Bailey leaves prison after serving time for a crime he didn't commit. He can't wait to smell freedom again, to get his life back on track. On the day his sister, Debbie, picks him up, one of the prison guards attempts to harass her. She shuts him down, embarrassing him in front of other guards. This incident has a domino effect on both Jimmy's and her lives, leading to crime, kidnapping, stalking, and even murder. Will Jimmy ever get back to playing baseball? And will Debbie's professional life be the way she'd planned? Set in eastern Massachusetts in the mid-1970s, the novel is a tour around Boston, Cambridge, and the South Shore of the time.