"It is the summer of 1968: The world is poised on the cusp of radical change. Politicians question the status quo, blacks react to decades of oppression, and students protest the injustices of war. Change is in the air, too, for 37-year-old single mother Claire Malek. She has just walked out on her rather cushy job in Washington, DC, as "special assistant" to Senator Bob Mallory. DC had become an impossible place for Claire, heavy with regrets and burdened with secrets she knew she could never divulge.

Anxious for both escape and change, Claire packs her 15-year-old daughter, April into her Camaro and heads to a small town on Cape Cod, where Claire takes a job as cub reporter on a twice-weekly newspaper called the Covenant. She know's it's a big risk, but Claire is desperate for a new start and a new life, and the town and all it has to offer seem to be a good beginning.".

"For Lane Hillman, son of the publisher of the Covenant, change is just beyond the horizon. Twenty-two years old and fresh out of Harvard, he's come home to celebrate the last summer of his youth and one final season as a reporter on his father's newspaper. In an effort to avoid the draft, and possible service in Vietnam, Lane has enlisted in VISTA - the America-based Peace Corps - and in the fall will begin a four-year stint working in the inner city of Detroit."--BOOK JACKET.