Thomas Edison Orwell has awful vision and a terrible secret. If a move hundreds of miles north failed to quell his profoundly guilty conscience, can anything?

When Edison and his wife Brenda move to the quiet hamlet of Standard, New York to escape "the troubles," they find a much different lifestyle, but no relief from the demons that plague Edison.

Immersion in town affairs offers him significant distraction, but he is never truly at peace. His unquenchable thirst for redemption plunges him into a quixotic run for the Town Board, attempting to thwart a brazen scheme by corrupt local politicians.

Brenda pines to return "home." Her receipt of a letter she hides from her husband creates an invisible force pulling her away from Standard... and Edison? Maybe that's not the real question.