Dr. Allen is the center of this novel, a rheumatologist, used to diagnosing illnesses, sticking to the facts. He's a father of two young sons, and Daniel, from a previous marriage and a recent college dropout. He has lost touch with Daniel over the past year since he left school. And then the impossible happens, his son is arrested for assassinating the liberal Democratic candidate for the Presidency. His life as he knows it is torn apart and he spends the next year trying to prove Daniel's innocence but also becomes obsessed with lives of other killers, like Charles Whitman, the University of Texas shooter and John Hinkley. His search for meaning is interspersed with chapters about Daniel, where he's been, Texas, Montana and finally California and we are allowed into Daniel's slow spiral towards the shooting of the Candidate. Dr. Allen goes back through Daniel's life, trying to find that fact that led to this end, perhaps his divorce, or Daniel's traveling back and forth between his two parents until college, but to no avail. Both Dr. Allen and his son are real, a lost son, a guilt-ridden father.
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