This novel of some 230 pages presents a New Orleans family, the Kaufmanns, for four generations from 1909 to 1977. Backstory is that the Confederates won the war of 1861-65. George, the patriarch. Is an immigrant. He worked as captain of the Jackson Ave. ferry and lived in the Garden District. Mary, his wife, was an Irish butcher's daughter whose shop George often patronized. They have one son, Eric. He is twelve when his mother dies. His father is aided by two servants who live in the house.
In college, Eric meets Stephanie, a half-Cherokee girl from Tulsa. Whom he courts and marries. Eric works at a newspaper. He and Stephanie have two children, Henry and Linda. Eric advances at the paper and eventually buys a camp on Lake Pontchartrain.
Henry meets Renee Gautier when he rescues her from a train. They date all through high school. They have a little group that includes their neighbor, Dorothy. and Linda. After college Henry works for a radio station. He hires a Chicago man named Stanley to run the station with him. He and Renee have three children, Flavia, Martin, and Denise. Stanley marries Elizabeth, a woman who works with Dorothy.
Stanley and Elizabeth have a daughter named Lisa. During a severe hurricane Henry's family takes Stanley's family in for a week. Martin, six, entertains Lisa, four, and they become close. Eventually, they marry. After time in Nashville, they return to Louisiana. Martin is elected governor in 1977.
