Chapter 1:
It is 2008 and Alex and Sasha are out on what will prove to be their single date. When Sasha excuses herself to use the restroom her compulsion to take things that do not belong to her overwhelms and she steals the wallet. After watching the woman come out and frantically search for the missing item, Sasha heads back to the bathroom and is discovered red-handed. She begs the woman not to say anything and she agrees. Alex and Sasha head back to her apartment which is overrun with stolen items and have. Sex.
Chapter 2:
The year is 2006 and middle-aged record executive Bennie Salazar is trying yet again to make a connection with son Chris. On this occasion, the attempt involves visiting a band called the Stop/Go sisters.
Chapter 3:
The year is 1979 and carefree teenager Bennie Salazar loves hanging out with Rhea, Jocelyn, Scottie and Alice doing the whole sex, drugs and punk rock and roll thing. Scottie has it bad for Jocelyn, but Jocelyn enters into a relationship with an man named Lou Kline that she met while hitchhiking.
Chapter 4:
The year is 1973 and Lou Kline is a middle-aged music producer in Africa on safari with his kids and girlfriend. An encounter between Charlie, the 14 year old daughter, and a young warrior briefly gives a peek into the future of 2008. Later the safari members will witness the killing of a lion. Later, another glimpse into the future reveals a sad narrative for Charlie: brief membership in a weird Mexican cult, a cocaine addiction resulting the need for facial reconstruction surgery and a history of being dominated by men.
Chapter 5:
Twenty years after first meeting him, Jocelyn visits a dying Lou at his home, tagging Rhea along. By now, Lou’s kids number six and his marriages stopped after number three. When it slips Jocelyn’s mind that his first son Rolph is dead and she inquires about him, Lou begins to cry and Jocelyne slips into into a silent simmering anger that culminates with her assertion that she should kill him right now. He responds that it is too late.
Chapter 6:
The year is 199 and Bennie is a successful enough music producer to be featured in a piece published in Spin magazine. Scottie has not enjoyed nearly the same trajectory and reads the article in a bitter mood. He goes to visit Bennie in his office, but the meeting is awkward. As he leaves, he stops and hands Bennie’s card to a couple he recognizes who are pursuing a career in music.
Chapter 7:
Over the course of 2002-2004 Bennie and his wife Stephanie take up residence in a rather conservative suburb where their rock and roll attitudes are not exactly a perfect fit. To try to better assimilate, they apply for membership and accepted into a country club. Thing go much better for Stephanie who make a friend of Kathy, but Kathy’s husband Clay insults Bennie one night a party. Bennie washes his hands of the whole country club lifestyle, but Stephanie keeps it up behind his back. Time drags on and when a washed-up rocker named Bosco arrives to inform them of his plans for a comeback tour, the lies threaten to catch up with Stephanie, but as he madly rushes to keep her life in balance, she discovers that Bennie has been lying too: he’s been having an affair with Kathy.
Chapter 8:
The year is 2008 and Dolly live in an apartment with her daughter trying to desperately to regain her footing as a hotshot NYC PR maven. At present, however, her entire client list consists of just one dictator given to indulging his genocidal tendencies. Dolly arranges for a movie star nearly as washed up as she to be photographed with the General—as he is known—but the mouthy movie star goes too far, causing the General to kidnap her and send Dolly and her daughter back home. When Dolly publishes the picture of the General and the movie star, both experience a spike in popularity.
Chapter 9:
Written in the format of a celebrity puff piece in 1999, the former kidnap victim, Kitty Jackson tells all to reporter Jules Jones. Jules is brother to Stephanie and brother-in-law to Bennie.
Chapter 10:
Sasha has a new boyfriend in 1993: Drew. Growing increasingly jealous of Drew is Rob, the boy she entered into a phony romance with to fool the detective hired by her father to follow her and find out what he was doing. Rob relates this to Drew which is news to him and also admits he regrets not sleeping with Sasha when he had the chance. One night Rob and Drew go to a club, get high and then walk down by the river where Rob tell him that Sasha’ past is not nearly as clean-cut as he thinks. Drew accuses Rob of lying and dives into the frigid water of the East River. Rob goes after, but never comes back up.
Chapter 11:
The year is 1991 and it’s been two years since Sasha ran away from home. Her uncle Ted has traveled to Naples to track down her down. When he finds her, she’s got a limp, slash marks across her wrist and the ability to pick his wallet from his pocket without him even realizing it.
Chapter 12:
In the year 2025, Sasha and Drew’s 12-year-old daughter Allison has created a PowerPoint presentation that reveal that Drew is a doctor, that she has an autistic brother a year older and that the house is filled with tension whenever both mother and father are home which is not often because Drew prefer to stay at work for as long as possible.
Chapter 13:
About two years before Allison will create her PowerPoint, 60-ish Bennie Salazar is sitting in the living with a man named Alex who is struggling to remember the name of a girl from whom he first heard of Bennie; all he can recall is that on their one and only date there was some confusion about a stolen wallet or something. Later they go to a concert and after finally getting Scottie to take the stage, Alex watches the performance almost lost in a trance. When Alex finally recalls that the girl’s name was Sasha and he and Bennie walk to the apartment where they wound up after that date. Sasha doesn’t live there anymore.
