At twelve years old, Cornelius, the son of an Italian-American woman and an older black man from Mississippi named Herman, secretly takes over his father's job at a silent film theater in New York's East Village. Five years later, as Herman lives out his last days, he shares his wisdom with his son, explaining that the person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets...

Hoping to save his marriage by ending an illicit affair with an incandescent but difficult student, college professor Steven Brookman discovers that the young woman's passions are not easily curtailed and that their relationship has more complicated ramifications than either anticipated.