Book summary

A senator from Massachusetts, who goes unnamed throughout the novel, meets Kelly Kelleher, a young writer from Boston, at a July 4th party in Maine. They leave the party to go to dinner and a motel, but on the way the drunken senator takes the wrong road. When they finally reach the ferry, which is departing as they approach the dock, the senator speeds up the car but misses the ferry and hits the water. The senator crawls over Kelly to get out of the car. She is trapped inside. Oates places this tale in the present, using recent political figures like Dukakis, Bush, and Thurgood Marshall.