Meet James Samuel Vincent, an affluent Manhattan attorney who shirks his modest Irish American background but hews to his father<U+2019>s meandering ways. James muddles through a topsy-turvy relationship with his son, Rufus, which is further complicated when Rufus marries Claudia Christie. Claudia<U+2019>s mother<U+2014>Agnes Miller Christie<U+2014>is a beautiful African American woman who survives a chance encounter on a Georgia road that propels her into a new life in the Bronx. Soon after, her husband, Eddie Christie, is called to duty on an air craft carrier in Vietnam, where Tom Stoppard<U+2019>s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” becomes Eddie<U+2019>s life anchor, as he grapples with mounting racial tensions on the ship and counts the days until he will see Agnes again. These unforgettable characters<U+2019> lives intersect with a cast of lovers and friends<U+2014>the unapologetic black lesbian who finds her groove in 1970s Berlin; a moving man stranded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during a Thanksgiving storm; two half-brothers who meet as adults in a crayon factory; and a Coney Island waitress whose Prince Charming is too good to be true. With piercing humor, exacting dialogue, and a beautiful sense of place, Regina Porter<U+2019>s debut is both an intimate family portrait and a sweeping exploration of what it means to be American today.