Goodness brings us into a close-knit community of midwestern peace activists, whose coming of age during the tumult of the 1960s profoundly shapes the rest of their lives.

The evolving relationships between friends and lovers, women and women, women and men, mothers and their children are woven into a story of pain and discovery, of finding new ways to raise children, of holding demonstrations, of trying to change the world during an era of intense social upheaval, and of trying to maintain the idealism of the 1960s without succumbing to the cynicism of later years.

At the heart of this book are the women: Cora, Dinah, Maureen, Thelma, Persimmon, Max, and others - women who discover and explore feminism through their peace activism, who support and prod one another through the puzzling maze of finding themselves, who touch one another in ways that reverberate into future decades, who create lasting friendships that enable them to survive their other relationships.