In Jamaica Plain, an unassuming neighborhood in Boston, we meet extraordinary individuals, including the protector of a local park, a master framer, an urban gardener, and a corporate lawyer turned community advocate.

They become Kathleen Hirsch's guides, and ours, revealing the ancient truth that living well in community is as much about the personal choices we make to work, play, and associate in certain ways, as it is about the grassroots connections we foster in the shops and on neighborhood streets, in the pubs and projects, that mature into traditions, lore, and institutions. Where we experience our common humanity, we forge a common life.