This is an epistolary novel that follows the life of Elliot Song, a hospital worker that writes poetry as a hobby, from birth to middle age, in the first half of the 20th century. He is contacted by some estranged siblings of his while at college and deal with his "deadbeat" dad, who had been absent from his life since age eight; later on, he must deal with loss and regret as he learns of a certain tragic pattern that has been in his family for almost a century. In the end, the karmic wheel seems to turn in his direction and he follows his dream-a dream that has been kindling inside him since he was a child.
