Fitzgerald had written two novels for adults, Papa Married a Mormon and Mama's Boarding House, published in 1955 and 1958 and set in Adenville, Utah, at the end of the 19th century.
Fitzgerald submitted the new novel, which focused on the children of Adenville, to Doctorow at The Dial Press but by then family stories were out of favor with adult readers.
The protagonist says that two centuries before he was born, Dennis Fitzgerald betrayed six of his cousins to English soldiers during a tax revolt in County Meath.
It is a theme with the protagonist's parents, with the mother calling him and his brothers by the middle name of "Dennis" when she is cross with them and the father casually referring to them by their first two initials "S.D, T.D.
All the non-Mormons or "Gentiles" attend a generalized community church, and the Fitzgeralds have to make do with the services of itinerant priests and of the local preacher, Reverend Holcomb, who preaches "strictly from the Bible" so he does not show favoritism to either Protestants or Catholics.
Fitzgerald's books describe many issues regarding society and life in the context of the late 19th century, between 1896 and 1898 in the southwestern United States.