On Good Friday of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. When people switched on their radios, they heard the reassuring voice of Genie Chance, a radio reporter and working mother who would help to put the fractured community back together. Drawing on unpublished documents, interviews with survivors, and original broadcast recordings, Jon Mooalem tells Chance's story, as well as that of the eccentric characters—from a mountaineering psychologist to the theater group staging Our Town—who joined forces to restore the city.