Firmly positioned in a time in which the public's "right to know" is a hotly debated topic and presidential personal matters are assumed to be open for general observation, Gore Vidal looks back to a time in which politics were not assumed to be open and decisions were made for the citizens of the United States, not by them.

Vidal presents an interesting look at what many have termed the "golden age," the 1940s and early 1950s. He concentrates on the two power centers of the United States at the time, Hollywood and Washington, D.C., with an emphasis on the latter.

The novel includes a great many characters, but the story centers around two people in particular: Caroline Sanford (former movie actress and former owner/publisher of a Washington paper, the Tribune) and her nephew, Peter Sanford (son to Caroline's half-brother, Blaise Sanford, the current...