Joan Didion's highly influential collection of essays defines for many the America that rose from the ruins of the 1960s.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is trapped in the consulate. The man with the candies will lead the children into the sea.

In this now legendary journey into the depths of the American psyche, Didion searches for stories as the 1960s implode. She waits for Jim Morrison to appear, visits the Black Panthers in prison, celebrates with Janis Joplin, and shops for clothes with the girls of Charles Manson. She and her readers emerge cauterized from this devastating tour through the age of self-discovery into the harsh light of the morning after.