Wrenched from their cosy life in Pennsylvania at the end of WW II, the four stairstep siblings (later five) suddenly find themselves ushered into a strange new world – central Florida. Raised in a region whipsawed by profound social and economic changes, their “old South” father, and Yankee-Catholic mother attempt to coral the five rambunctuous boys, who, under the intrepid leadership of the oldest brother, gradually adapt to their environment which is swiftly transforming from an ante- bellum backwater state into a national front-runner through the competition with the Soviet Union (Cold War, “space race”) while facing the explosive challenge of the growing civil rights movement, the latter of which causes great tensions within the family. Within this lively atmosphere the third son serves as an eye-witness, offering a chronology a young boy gradually beginning to question the tenents of his parents the segregationist world of his father as well as that of his devoutly Catholic monther. A micro-view of America at mid-century.
