Sixty-two-year-old Reeve - bitchy, horny and wisecracking - lies in a hospital bed, the result of a brutal beating from a hustler. As if that weren't enough, his landlord is evicting him due to the noise he made during the attack, his career as a petty bureaucrat is at a dead end, and the silent, straight hunk in the hospital bed next to his is stirring longings Reeve vowed never to have again. Seeking both physical and emotional healing as he begins the slow process of recovery, Reeve rummages through the past. He recalls the troubled and closeted world of his former professor and mentor, Tom Slater, a famous American literary scholar who was driven to suicide during the McCarthy era. Reeve's vivid and gut-wrenching memories offer a sweeping view of fifty years of gay life in America - fifty years of American homophobia that he has survived, with bravery, grace and humor.
