As Cold War hysteria inflames America FBI agents knock on the Bronx apartment door of a Communist man and his wife. After a highly controversial trial the couple go to the electric chair for treason despite worldwide protests. Decades later their son Daniel grown to young manhood tries to make sense of their lives and deaths - and their legacy to him. Like millions of other Americans he is attempting to reconcile an America based on the highest human ideals with the tragedy of his parents. This is the framework for E.L. Doctorow's dazzling masterpiece as he fictionalizes an actual social and political drama to create an intensely moving searching and illuminating tale of two decades two generations and a troubled legacy of passion and purpose martyrdom and meaning.
