Is this "fictional" story about a troubled mathematics professor who suddenly resigns his tenure and lives on the streets as a vagrant, and the "dead" girl who comes into his life, actually true? Does time, the past and future, exist? Is life as we think of it real?

A grandfather and his blind granddaughter, both in Rome where an eye surgeon has performed an experimental surgery on the 18-year-old granddaughter in hopes of restoring her sight, are asked by a fellow American in their small hotel to hold his briefcase while he travels out of town. Unbeknownst to them, the briefcase contains documents stolen from the Vatican. Doing that favor proves disastrous. The fellow American is murdered, and the grandfather and his granddaughter are warned by an eerie stranger that they are slated for a similar fate unless they escape. Not only is a viscous "Gray" coming after them, he has the power to enlist the help of all governments in tracking them down. They barely escape the police in their hotel room and thereafter the chase is on, all across Eurasia. They are forced to stay hidden; an intelligent blind girl led by her aged ex-Marine grandfather. No matter what they do or where they go, innocents die along the way.

Fictional portrayal of crime and the criminal characters associated with it in the Southern New England area during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. The story follows the life of "Donato 'Danny' Pastore," who suffers through a traumatic event when he's a young boy, affecting his mental health, and the scores of characters and incidents that surround him during his lifetime. The pages flow with the full gauntlet of emotions and the complicated affairs of the criminal elements. There is much to laugh and cry about in the story, along with surprising insights into the criminal world of Southern New England on the way to the fateful denouement. A story to get into, told in nearly 700 pages.