Following the loss of Dennis, his life-partner of 30 years in addition to having lost all members of his family except for a few distant cousins, Art looks back on his life in an attempt to understand the forces that controlled and ultimately destroyed his father while crippling his mother with decades of alcohol and drug dependency. Now in his 80s, and living with a sense of freedom, accomplishment and contentment, he carefully considers and ultimately rejects the whispered fear of a "Copleston Curse." Late in life, he has re-united with distant cousins and he finds great joy and satisfaction in "paying forward" the many benefits of his life to a younger generation of Coplestons to help insure that the Copleston family name flourishes. This is a story that reaches from the dark days of the Great Depression, through the fearful periods of the infamous Johns Committee inquisition and the worst of the AIDS pandemic, to the bright horizons of a life well-lived and a loving plan to help two remarkable little boys.