It's the last night of 1984 and Lillian Boxfish, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. Her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl, but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around Manhattan, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be. In this novel by the author of Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, Lillian reviews a life of adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed—and has not.