Part one focuses on introducing the reader to Leopold Bloom King (Leo), his family, and his set of friends who he meets on a fateful Bloomsday (June 16, 1969).

Leo is the narrator of the story who gradually reveals his troubled childhood which was traumatized by the sudden and unforeseen suicide of his older brother Steve.

He then appears with his mother at a gathering at the Charleston yacht club where he meets Chad, Molly, and Fraser; three affluent teens, two of whom were kicked out of their respective private schools.

Eventually, all the characters (including Betty, another orphan) will meet each other and become friendly, despite the major differences and cultural struggles between black and white, city and country, and rich and poor.

Part two of the story occurs twenty years later, when Leo (who is now a newspaper columnist) is interrupted from work by Sheba Poe, who is now a famous actress who flew back to Charleston from Hollywood.

A tip from an unlikely source results in a daring rescue attempt to find Trevor, who is found close to death and trapped in a crumbling building in the Tenderloin area.

It is in that moment that Leo decides after years of steadily clinging to his marriage due to Catholic vows that he and Starla can no longer be a husband and wife.

In spite of increasing fears for her safety and security due to her father's threats, Sheba refuses to leave her teenage home and her dementia-crippled mother, though Leo convinces her to let Trevor live with him.

After a week of tributes, Leo writes a detailed column revealing Max's criminality before entering a mental hospital at the recommendation of a psychiatrist.

[3] The Dallas Morning News called it a "gushy mess",[4] while the Los Angeles Times suggested that "[p]art of the problem is the pacing of the story... tragic twists just appear, lacking the kind of buildup that makes them work.

'"[7] Booklist noted that "Conroy fleshes out the almost impossibly dramatic details of each of the friends’ lives in this vast, intricate story, and he reveals truths about love, lust, classism, racism, religion, and what it means to be shaped by a particular place, be it Charleston, South Carolina, or anywhere else in the U.S.

The combination of all these disparate elements bears the unmistakable makings of a spirit-shaping saga.”[8] According to Conroy's literary agency, soon after the book was released, the publisher remarked: "South of Broad hit all possible best seller list[sic] and is selling at a pass never seen 'this side of Tom Clancy' so to speak.