It is just a few weeks after Christmas, and the unforgiving New England weather has taken a turn for the worse Doyle has dragged his reluctant sons, Tip and Teddy, to a speech by Jesse Jackson Though his own political career is over, dealt a fatal blow by a family scandal, Doyle is still fired by Jackson's rhetoric and perplexed by his sons' indifference The two boys, both adopted, are close enough in age to be taken for twins, but in character they couldn't be more different Teddy - open, affectionate, the gentle dreamer - thinks he has found his calling in the Catholic Church The elder by a year, Tip is more serious, reserving his own passionate interest for the warmth of his lab, labelling and categorising fish specimens When they are involved in a violent accident in the treacherously icy road, the Doyles are forced for the first time to confront certain truths about how the death of Bernadette, Doyle's beloved wife, has affected the family, and about the anonymous figure,