Set in Miami Beach, Florida in 1972, the novel follows the Posner family—two Holocaust survivors, Sophie and Jacob, and their son, Adam —doing everything they can to avoid one another in a city with an infinite supply of colorful diversions, including the Republican and Democratic political conventions, the rise of the counterculture, the Cold War, and the desegregation of the old South. The novel is enriched by the presence of historical characters such as Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, I. B. Singer, Meyer Lansky—even a sighting of Fidel Castro..