Prologue Summary

Located 50 miles inland from the sea, Empire Falls is a small town in Maine on the Knox River. The Whiting's are the wealthiest and most powerful family in town with a traditional family mansion downtown. Surround the mansion are the industries they have spawned over the generations. Charles Beaumont Whiting, son and heir apparent to the Whiting fortune, returned from 10 years in Mexico where he was pursuing empty dreams as an untalented artist and poet, as well as having a good time chasing women and lying on the beach. When he returns to Empire Falls, he is in his late twenties. Charles grows into middle age through the course of the Prologue. Charles is reconciled to his destiny, which is to carry on in the family tradition of running the family industries, although he believes he left his "better self" in Mexico. Realizing...