The novel is set in 1972, and the main character Che Selkirk is being brought up in New York by his grandmother. On a rare excursion to the city from his isolated home on Kenoza Lake in upstate New York, Che meets a woman who he believes is his mother. The woman, Dial, attempts to arrange a meeting between Che and his mother but this is cancelled after Che's mother is killed while attempting to plant a bomb. Dial then takes the boy away from New York, first to Seattle where they briefly meet Che's father, and then on to Queensland in Australia. Dial and Che eventually settle into a hippie commune while still attempting to evade the authorities.