It is 1951, the second year of the Korean War. Marcus Messner, of Newark, New Jersey, is beginning his sophomore year at pastoral, conservative Winesburg College in Ohio. Why is he here? Because his father, a hard-working neighbourhood butcher, seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy. Indignation, the story of a young man's education in life's terrifying chances and bizarre obstructions, is a powerful addition to Roth's investigations of the impact of American history on the life of the vulnerable individual.