Maureen Millea Smith stakes her claim as a new literay star with this novel filled with regret and redemption. Fred Holly looks back over the past 30 years of his life and recounts what happened during his senior year of high school.

On the nights, on the very worst nights, when my sadness leaves me anxious and shaking, Thomas holds my hand and says to me what he said to me on our very first night together, "So tell me your story, Fred Holly." I tell it all. Again. It began with the colic, Charlotte was born with the colic.

With the gentle, graceful touch of a natural storyteller, Maureen Millea Smith invites readers to the Omaha, Nebraska, of the 1960s and '70s for the tender story of one man and his search for truth amidst powerful loss.

Fred Holly, the oldest child of four children, begins his senior year in high school while he works part-time at the local Omaha art museum, a place where he can get lost for hours in the beauty before him. At the museum, Fred escapes his father's worries about the Vietnam War, the draft and the changes that are roiling America. As fall progresses, James Day, Fred's best friend, begins spending most of his time with his male debate coach and Fred can't help but feel the strange pangs of jealousy. Soon thereafter, Charlotte, Fred's precocious eleven-year old sister, is admitted to the hospital with kidney problems. As Charlotte's condition worsens and the likelihood of her coming home decreases, the Hollys lives descend into sadness. And only their dreams can hope to inspire their days.

Unspoken and unrequited love, loss of life and loss of innocence, facing change and changing times, these are the elements of this subtly and beautifully written novel of regret and redemption.