In this Vietnam-era novel, Max Carboni erects roadside crosses for family members of loved ones killed in highway accidents. He comes to believe that this part of the family florist business is something people should do for themselves. As Max prepares to accept the Vietnam draft, his overbearing father hires anti-war Francie to sing hymns alongside Max at highway accident sites. Francie, who has no real family of her own, desperately wants to be part of the Carbonis. She is an aspiring musician, fresh from Woodstock, and has dreams of being a sensation in music festivals. At first, Max resents her barging into the family, especially her influence on his younger sister. Then Francie begins to have an even stronger effect on him. She makes Max confront those things he absolutely must do for himself, things he can neither delegate nor abdicate. Together, they must figure out why the corrupt local sheriff is trying to also wedge his way into the family business. Max and Francie fall in love amid the swirl of epic historic events, the after-Woodstock festivals, the My-Lai massacre, the first draft lottery, and the Kent State shootings. They contend with ways to make peace, love, and music and arrive at very different solutions.

Compelling and moving real-life accounts of the impact on family life of the return of the troops at the end of the Second World War. Summer 1945. Britain was in jubilant mood. At last, the war was over. Soon the men would be coming home. Then everything would be fine: life would get back to normal. Or would it? Six long years of war had profoundly changed family life. For years, Dad had been a khaki figure in a photograph on the wall, a crumpled letter from overseas, an occasional visitor on weekend leave. Now he was here to stay, a stranger in a group that had learned to live without him - and was not always prepared to have him back. Most homecomings were joyful, never-to-be-forgotten moments of humour and hope. Others were hard. And there was no one to deal with the tears and the trauma. It would take hope and courage for families to live and love together again.