On a late summer day on Martha's Vineyard, Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey reunite. The three men plan to spend the weekend in a vacation home on the island - for old times' sake. They have been friends since their college days during the Vietnam War years. They have taken very different paths in life, yet they were all once in love with the same girl, Jacy Calloway.

Shortly after their graduation, Jacy vanished without a trace. But none of them has forgotten their girlfriend - or the question of whom Jacy actually loved. Eventually, Lincoln begins to revisit the circumstances of her mysterious disappearance. What really happened back then? Richard Russo tells the story of three people who have grown estranged from one another and their struggle with the uncertainty of whether their life choices were the right ones. Alongside this, a portrait of a country that no longer fully understands itself emerges. With "Beyond Expectations.".