A multi-decade, character-driven novel that traces an East Village community from the ravages of the AIDS crisis through waves of addiction and the later sweep of gentrification, focusing on artists, activists and the younger people shaped by their choices; the story centers on a once-squatted church-turned-cultural landmark and a violent incident that forces survivors and descendents to confront secrets, culpability, changing values and the costs — personal and social — of political abandonment.