A fascinating account of the lives of women on the sidelines of the Vietnam War. American women whose lives turned out to be connected with Vietnam, albeit for a short time, have always been supporting characters, extras in literature about the Vietnam War, but in Alice McDermott's novel they are in the center. This is a story about women who became unwitting witnesses of huge tragic events. Tricia is a shy newlywed who married a budding engineer working in naval intelligence. Charlene is an experienced “corporate” spouse and mother of three children. In Saigon, these two women form a careful alliance, both are housewives and assistants to their husbands, but both are worried about the fate of Vietnam, and they are ready to “do good” for the Vietnamese. Sixty years later, Charlene's daughter, inspired by a meeting with an aging Vietnam veteran, gets in touch with Tricia. Together, they look back at that time in Saigon, ironically assessing the pivotal year of 1963 and the place of women in those days — on the periphery of politics, history, war, and the beliefs of their husbands. A virtuoso novel by Alice McDermott, one of the most observant and most humanistic writers, about stupidity and grace, about commitment and sacrifice, about redemption in a broken world.