As book two opens, Nick Heath, a reporter for a free weekly newspaper has traveled to the east coast in pursuit of some background information about the most recent winner of the Hilton Humanitarian Award. Thirty years have passed since Santo Aretino made a hasty exit from his hometown. Nick revisits many of the people Santo had influenced and found a man dynamically split into fans and foes, friends and enemies, lovers and haters. The books ends with Santo's first leg of his journey into his future.