So begins this stunning novel about two young men, vastly different and from opposite worlds, who meet at Columbia University. Orno Tarcher arrives in New York City from a small town in Missouri, feeling unsophisticated, already behind, and tired of his family's bedrock values. He meets Marshall Emerson, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker from a wordly family, who has a photogrpahic memory and gets straight A's without opening a book yet lives always on the edge. As the novel follows the course of these men's lives, women and work - Marshall moves to Hollywood and becomes a screenwriter, while Orno follows a more mundane path - Ethan Canin explores the conflicts of character that mark the heart of every life.