Arne buys a house in suburban Los Angeles, only to discover that the previous owner died in a grisly manner. Then he gets a visit from the dead woman's best friend, who is convinced that she didn't commit suicide. Together, they investigate what Tilly is sure must be a murder, and come up against the toughest moral dilemma of their lives.
A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.
