Summary

In the Introduction, Moore gives an overview about how he came upon the subject of the book and what he hoped to learn. It began when the same newspaper ran two articles about two people with the same name. The articles about the two Wes Moores appeared close together in the year 2000. The one about him told about his being named a Rhodes scholar. The one about the other Wes Moore was about a jewelry store heist that went wrong. An off-duty police officer working as a security guard was killed. Bruce Prothero pursued the men into the parking lot where he was shot. A manhunt ensued for the five men involved in the heist.

Two years later, the coincidence of the two names continued to haunt the author. Finally, he wrote to his double. The other Wes wrote back, and they began...