This novel follows its hero, Owen Mackenzie, from his birth in the semirural Pennsylvania town of Williow to his retirement in the rather geriatric community of Haskells Crossing, Massachusets. In between these two settlements comes Middle Falls, Connecticut, where Owen founds the successful firm of E-O Data. Owens education is not merely technical but liberal, as the humanity of his three villages, especially that of their female citizens, works to disengage him from his youthful innocence