After the Race recounts the unraveling of the family Reed. and the raw, serpentine trails the father-son pair of Wayne-an Army Special Forces veteran whose reckless pursuit of contentment propels the story-and Charles-a gifted runner whose effortless successes on the track contrast his struggles everywhere else-blaze through, over and around Wayne's worsening alcoholism and deteriorating mental health. The plot ricochets between vaulted ceilings-an enormous financial windfall, near misses on distance running records, romance and reunion-and concrete basement floors-arrests, bar-fights, accidents, near-death experiences, the Blizzard of 1993, and the collapse of North American Honeybee populations. The result is a character-driven exploration of the tension between appetite and restraint, between gunpowder and glue, set deep in Virginia apple country, along the northern rim of the Shenandoah Valley.