Kate and Joel were university students in 1970, when the Vietnam war protests were at their height. Drawn from the author's own experiences during her senior year, a tender love story unfolds, set during the Isla Vista riots amidst martial law and escalating violence. Joel would evade the police and steal into Isla Vista every Friday night, risking arrest, or worse, to be with Kate for one more weekend. He was her hero, and he called it "playing in the apocalypse."