Guy Bennett was one of America's post-World War II success stories. Born of Italian immigrants during the Depression, he became a captain of industry, with a skyscraper in New York City and a son in the United States Senate. The applause mutes and friends grow scarce, however, when Guy stands before the court in 1989 accused of the double murder of his business partner, Vito Petrozzini, and Petrozzini's wife. District Attorney Thomas Straid, still licking his wounds from his senatorial defeat to Guy's son, believes he has all the evidence that he needs to throw away the key on Guy. The defense spans the globe and reaches back generations in search of an acquittal, unearthing a family secret that reveals the cold and devastating truth. In the end, a diminished yet renewed Bennett family gathers for their annual rite of making wine, which they call The Autumn Crush. The book is not only a murder mystery and family saga, but also a probe of the incipient cultural tensions and narcissism of the late twentieth century that are now part of the new American fabric.