Through the diary of fifteen-year-old Richard Mercurius, the reader is transported back to Philadelphia in the summer of 1976. Richard meets a free-spirited girl who works on the Saint Rita of Cascia school newspaper with the unlikely name of Laura Fedora. This girl with hair the color of "yams" turns his preppy world upside down. This second novel of the Mercury trilogy continues the themes established in "The Gringo"-obsessive love, eccentric families, betrayal, and an amazing foot fetish on Richard's part. It's the kind of writing you won't find anywhere else.