Inspired after meeting John F. Kennedy at a 1960 campaign fundraiser hosted by the Aldrich family, Chuck defies authority at his Pennsylvania boarding school, Sojie takes part in lunch counter sit-ins in Georgia, and Dick finally connects with his father in Hollywood.
In 1927 the Dixons move from rural Georgia to Chicago, where African Americans have more opportunities, and there Lorraine meets a famous movie actress and her little brother Marcus finds that his artistic talents are useful.
In the early years of the twentieth century, Peggy and her cousins Harry and Jack experience the excitement of belonging to a family of famous actors as they prepare to open a new theater with a family production of an original play.
The Aldrich, Vivanti, and Dixon families gather to celebrate Nell and Rocco's one hundredth birthdays as the new century dawns and the specter of the Y2K bug threatens.
The new inventions and gadgets of 1983, such as the personal computer, Swatch watch, and Rubik's Cube, don't distract Suzanne and her friends from confronting the owner of a factory that is dumping toxic chemicals into a nearby lake.
America's involvement in Vietnam adds to the seemingly constant arguing in the Vivante family, whose cousins are among a group of people who have dropped out to live in a commune in Arizona.
In the summer of 1936, Tony runs away from his home above his family's Italian restaurant in Chicago, while in Berlin David is present at the Olympics and prepares to move to America.
An Italian immigrant boy joins the large Aldrich family as they stage a women's suffrage play and listen to messages on the wireless radio about the ocean voyage of the Titanic.
