The Dönme sect --- a group of Jewish-Islamic adherents with ancient roots --- lives in an isolated community on rural land outside of small-town Mt. Izmir, Ohio. Self-sustaining, deeply religious and heavily armed, they have followed their self-proclaimed prophet, Natan of Flatbush, from Brooklyn to this new land. But the brutal murder of Natan’s teenage son throws their tight community into turmoil. When Zeke Leger, a 30-year-old writer at a national magazine, arrives from New York for the funeral of a friend, he becomes intrigued by the case and begins to report on the murder --- with dangerous implications for his body and his soul.

Bluegrass musician, former journalist and editor, and now PhD in English, Mark Brumfeld has arrived at his 30s with significant debt and no steady prospects. His girlfriend Cassie --- a punk bassist in an all-female band --- finds work at a “new media” company. When Cassie refuses his marriage proposal, Mark leaves New York and returns to the basement of his childhood home. Desperate and humiliated, he begins to post a series of online video monologues that critique Baby Boomers and their powerful hold on the job market. But as his videos go viral, and while Cassie starts to build her career, Mark loses control of what he began --- with consequences that ensnare them in a matter of national security.

Poxl West is the epitome of manhood and something of an idol to his teenage nephew, Eli Goldstein, who reveres him as a brave, singular, Jewish war hero. Poxl fills Eli’s head with electric accounts of his derring-do, adventures and romances, as he collects the best episodes from his storied life into a memoir. But as he delves deeper into Poxl’s history, Eli begins to see that the life of the fearless superman he’s adored has been much darker than he let on.