Tony and Gigi are two young people coming from very different places who fall together in the embrace of passion. It takes one kiss. But even before that kiss, they beg to agree, never to share their secrets. Gigi sees them with children, nine children. But on their wedding night, a knock comes at the door. Will the ghost of Laura Antonelli permit their love? The scene is the North End of Boston, in the dramatic days of The Great War, the Molasses Flood, the flu pandemic of 1918. Then the turbulent Twenties test them with the trials of Sacco and Vanzetti, and next the Depression challenges their very survival, only to bring them to the brink of World War II. Will Gigi's prophecy of nine children come true? Can Tony make a lasting peace with himself in spite of loving two women? Will their son, the American, survive the Battle of Salerno and his return to Alta Villa, the place where his father began? is the second of five novels by author Eugene Christy in The Twentieth Century Quintet, which tells the saga of three generations of an American immigrant family. The author is this year's winner of a full scholarship to the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop, awarded annually by Founder / Director Joy Baglio.