Each member of the Litvinoff family must confront the hypocrisies underlying their patriarch's political profile, and make difficult choices about their own values and ideological commitments.

[1] At a party in 1962, 18-year-old typist Audrey Howard meets Joel Litvinoff, an American lawyer involved with the civil rights movement.

Audrey has become a fiery, antagonistic woman who finds fault in all things and defends her husband's causes with zealous conviction.

While defending an Arab American man against terrorism charges in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Joel has a stroke and enters a coma.

Audrey receives a letter from a woman named Berenice Mason, who claims to be Joel's lover and the mother of his illegitimate child.

Rosa is at first put off by the family's insularity, but is intrigued by the rabbi's willingness to discuss his faith rationally with her.

At work, Karla is saved from an aggressive patient by Khaled, the man who runs the newspaper stand outside the hospital.

Karla is surprised by Khaled's genuine kindness, enjoyment of simple pleasures, and lack of concern for politics and appearances - so unlike her parents.

She agrees to pay Joel's child support in his stead on the condition that Berenice immediately leave and avoid further contact with her or her three children.

Mike argues with Audrey over his union's decision to support a Republican governor, and both of them mock Rosa for entertaining Orthodox faith.

Rosa also realizes that her international, upper-class upbringing has alienated her from the sensibilities and concerns of average suburban Americans, like her roommate.

Back at work, Rosa vetoes a dance routine at the after-school program for being too explicit, and Raphael and the girls make fun of her prudishness and suggest it is because she is Jewish.

During the pre-adoption courses, Karla is embarrassed at her inability to express sincere desire for children, whereas Mike's answers flow readily.

Karla questions how Khaled can care nothing for politics despite the systemic injustices against Arabs in America and the important accomplishments of past activists.

At the same time she realizes her hypocrisy, as she and Joel had mutually agreed to pull the plug if one of them became unable care for themselves and scorned the pro-life lobby.

When the after-school program girls perform the dance she vetoed at a public event, Rosa leaves without congratulating them.

When Raphael confronts her, she repeats that their work is futile and she cannot stand to watch the girls meet their class destiny.

Raphael angrily tells her that the girls deserve better than someone who sees them as lost causes, and Rosa realizes that he is correct and takes steps to quit.

He has positive relationships with his Alcoholic Anonymous sponsor, works hard on the farm, and has cut ties with Tanya and his addict friends in New York City.

Rosa also condemns their father for giving Berenice love that was meant for them, and for compromising his principles for a kooky artist.

Rosa takes the after-school program girls on one last excursion to a rally held by [Susan Sarandon] against the Iraq War.

Rosa asks Audrey what she would do if the truth struck her undeniably and inexplicably, even if she could not make sense of it and it contradicted everything she was raised to believe.

Mike is upset because the infection came on the same day as the election campaign he had run for his union, and he wanted to see the results.

Mike focuses on the election results until his candidate is declared the winner, then shows a tabloid article to Audrey about rumors regarding an affair by Joel.

Jean realizes that Audrey gone back to coldly hiding her feelings to safeguard Joel's legacy as a man of principle.

It has been called a "cruelly clever new novel",[3] "an observant and unsentimental family drama that pits rationalism against faith",[4] "at heart an American novel: a larger, more considered, layered and utterly assured study of a family driven by political passion whose personal lives refuse to comply with prescribed ideology".

And in one sense that exactly expresses what she's had to deal with all her life, being the less desirable companion to this charming, charismatic, fabulous man, who is also this gigantic egotist.