Tommy and Nathan Bishop are as different as two brothers can be. Carefree and careless, Tommy is the golden boy who takes men into his bed with a seductive smile and burns them out just as quickly. No one can resist him-and no one can control him, either. That salient point cartainly isn't lost on his brother. Nathan is all about control. At thirty-one, he is as dark and complicated as Tommy is light and easy, and he is bitter beyond his years. While Tommy left for the excitement of New York City. Nathan has stayed behind, teaching high school English in their provincial hometown, surrounded by the reminders of their ruined family history and the legacy of anger that runs through him like a scar. Now, Tommy has come home to the family cottage by the sea for the summer, bringing his unstable, sexuel powder keg of an entourage-and the distant echoes of his family's tumultuous past-with him. Tommy and his lover Philip are testering on the brink of disaster, while their married friends, Camitle and Kyle, perfect their steps in a dance of denial, each partner pulling Nathan deeper into the fray. And when one of Nathan's troubled students, Simon, begins visiting the house, the slow fuse is lit on a highly combustible mix. During a heady two-week party filed with drunken revelations, bitter jealousles, caustic jabs, and tender reconciliations. Tommy and Nathan will confront the legacy of their twisted family history-the angry, abusive father and the tragic death of their mother-and finally, to the one secret that has snaped their entire lives. It is a summer that will challenge everything Nathan remembers and unravel Tommy's carefully constructed facade, drawing them both unwittingly into a drama with echoes of the past. . . one with unforceseen and very dangerous consequences.