Twenty-eight-year-old Tim Halladay is a rising star in the three-martini lunch world of Madison Avenue advertising in the early 1970s. In only five years, Tim has become a vice president at the first ad agency he inter viewed with, in charge of some of the most prestigious accounts listed in Advertising Age.

But a week before Thanksgiving, his life takes a serious hit. After a hard-drinking, sex-filled night, Tim, the "golden boy," arrives late to work. He suddenly finds himself fired without explanation. With $300 in his savings account, Tim wonders how he'll even pay the rent.

As Tim comes to terms with his unemployment, he reminisces about his life and the circumstances that have brought him to this crucial crossroads. Everything in his life-his emotionally unstable upbringing, his ser vice in the army during the troubled years of the Vietnam War, his affair with a high school girlfriend, his experiences at William & Mar y during the JFK and LBJ years, his relocation to Manhattan in the 1970s, his first job in the world of advertising, and his adventures as a closeted gay man in the Stonewall Era Greenwich Village- contributed to both the downfall and redemption of Tim Halladay.