Overcoming disabling injuries, Vietnam vet Paul Bernard becomes an award-winning journalist and television newsman. Known for holding a mirror to American society and long critical of the radical right, after 9-11 Bernard attacks the Bush administration for Osama bin Laden's escape and leading the nation into a disastrous war. On assignment in Iraq, Bernard is killed under suspicious circumstances. Interwoven with the account of his life is an interview of his mentor, Professor Augustus F.X. Flynn, by a magazine writer profiling him. Frustrated by Washington's inaction, the two set out to find the truth about the killing.
Book One tells of Paul Bernard's coming of age, his Canadian immigrant roots, the patriotic and religious intensity of the early years. Then through the devastation of Vietnam to recovery and return, immersion in the New York newspaper scene, his family life. Twentieth Century Limited Book Two - Age of Reckoning, continues and completes the story.