The Civil War has just entered its third bloody year and the North is about to impose its first military draft, a decision that in New York City will spark the most devastating and destructive riot in American history. Peter Quinn, acclaimed author of Looking for Jimmy and Hour of the Cat, relates the events of this tumultuous time through the lives of people drawn from every part of the city’s teeming streets: an opportunistic but likable Irish-American hustler, a scheming Yankee stockbroker, an immigrant serving girl, a beautiful mulatto actress, her white minstrel lover, and a cluster of historical figures from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to Stephen Foster. The fates of these characters coalesce in the cataclysm of the Draft Riots, as Quinn magically brings to life a pivotal period in this country’s history.