This family saga from a National Book Award finalist is a “brilliantly orchestrated tale of several generations of Washington, D.C., insiders” (Booklist). In this epic and acutely observed novel, three generations of a family of Washington power brokers vie for influence over the fate of the nation. In the 1930s, Sen. Adolph Behl and his wife, Constance, buy historic mansion Echo House with the vision of transforming it into Washington’s greatest salon—an auspicious base camp from which the senator can launch his “final ascent,” and son Axel can prepare his first. Across decades of secrets, betrayals, victories, and humiliations, the Behl family will fight to remain near the center, and behind the scenes, of American political power—from the New Deal to Watergate and beyond. “A fascinating if ultimately painful fairy tale, complete with . . . a family curse . . . The decline of the Behls represents the decline of Washington from the bright dawn of the American century into the gathering shadows of an alien new millennium.” —The Washington Post “Puts the standard run-of-the-mill Washington novel to shame . . . It is Mr. Just’s intimate portrait of the city that makes his book so convincing.” —TheNew York Times “Will be read in a century’s time by anyone seeking to understand how we lived.” —Detroit Free Press “[Ward’s] stories put him in the category reserved for writers who work far beyond the fashions of the times. . . . Masterpieces of balance, focus, and hidden order.” —Chicago Tribune “He has earned a place on the shelf just below Edith Wharton and Henry James.” —Newsweek

Headquartered in Langley, Virginia, the CIA is located directly across the Potomac River from the old C & O Canal and the towpath that parallels it. Emmaline Constance, an elderly resident of the nearby village of Glen Echo, Maryland discovers a dead man on the towpath. However, when she returns with the police, the body is no longer there. In her efforts to prove she did not imagine it, she stumbles into the world of espionage during the era marking the break-up of the Soviet Union. The cold war is allegedly over but she is soon disillusioned when she learns both sides are guilty of murder and betrayal. Undaunted by threats to her life, she is tenacious in her pursuit of the truth.

This is a story of dysfunctional families and the effects encountered by one young woman who has been in a state of denial for decades. When the winds of change slowly blow in her direction-- this woman is reminded and convinced that her life has been a difficult one at best. She is forced to search her scattered and fragmented memories in an attempt to survive the unrelenting devastating blows of a difficult reality. The reality of her past begins to reveal it's haunting qualities early one morning after a disturbing dream and continues to grow while she survives one devastating blow after another. And through a persistant state of depression with a mutilated spirit and her amputated muse she begins therapy with a compassionate miracle worker. Her journey is a long one--as her therapist guides her though a maze of suppressed and repressed memories into recognition. And with recognition is a set of new eyes viewing and evaluating all of her choices while living in a life of denial that she created for existance. Survivng as a damaged person can dictate how a soul will evolve. An important component is the disposition of the person. A person's character dictates how the damaged person lives/survives and they usually know how to survive; it can be a negative or a positive life of survival. Survival depends strongly upon the individual, the boundaries and environment that they create to support his or her life. With the support of her family and friends she finds acceptance of her reality and purges her soul of a mistaken life style of fantasies.