This book is about a charismatic young man with extraordinary powers of healing, compassion, forbearance, and clairvoyance - named Amon. Living in an abandoned tugboat on Staten Island's Mariners Harbor waterfront, this modern day prophet performs everyday miracles while doing good work for the homeless and the downtrodden. Amon is befriended by a high school science teacher, Tom Haley, whose rational perspective differs from Amon's spiritual reference frame.
The story takes place during the turbulent 1970s when the country was torn apart by the Vietnam War, social change and unrest, and the sexual revolution. The contrasting lifestyles of the two friends are examined, along with the drinking culture of Staten Island's North Shore, in which the corner bar is the focus of the neighborhood's social life. The fast-paced story is interspersed with thumb-nail sketches of 1970s celebrities and events: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, Ralph Nader, Albert Shanker, Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron, the Fair Housing and Roe v. Wade court decisions, and Alcoholics Anonymous.
The concepts of economic disparity, ethnic conflict, spiritual-secular balance, and changing sexual mores in an evolving society, and idealism in the work-a-day world of 1970s America provide a backdrop to the unfolding plot. Notwithstanding their differences, the friendship between the two protagonists, Tom and Amon, is an ongoing motif in the story.