Is it fate or chance that rules our lives, luck or destiny? Are our futures already written or is life, after all, just a toss of the dice, the odds landing with us or against us? Odds have played an outsized role in the life of Chancer Wylls. Events seem to sweep him along, carrying him toward ends he can scarcely imagine. The year is 1971 and, shaken by the Vietnam War, student protests and personal heartbreak, Chancer struggles to find his way, recording it all in the form of a year-long almanac. Thirty years later his daughter discovers the journal, taking the reader on a journey that parallels her own turbulent times. Covering the years 1971 and 2001 in tandem, the story charts a dual course, the paths of which are eerily alike whether by fate or chance.