A man moves with his wife and son to Great Falls, Montana, inspired by the promise of a better life courtesy of an oil boom. The narrator, the man's then 16 year old son, recalls this period, largely through memories of his father, an attractive loser working as a teaching pro at a local golf club. Even by his high standards, this small, gentle novel is Ford's masterwork. In an atmosphere of claustrophobic intensity, the tone is sad, clear eyed, nonsentimental yet loving, full of compassion for a father who tried his best.

Forest fires rampage through the countryside while, torn by the tensions developing between his parents, the son watches his mother's contradictory frustrations. Delicate and precisely observed, this is American realism at its finest.