Sean Patrick Flanagan is a writer. He has been a journalist, a foreign correspondent and a war
correspondent. He is a noted and respected author. He is also a Communist. But the year is
1951 and it is a bad time to be a Communist.

On a frozen night in November 1951, the FBI knocks on his door. They invite him to
Washington for a little “chat” about Sean’s Communist past and associations. Thus begins his
descent into the nightmare of the McCarthy Era – of loyalty boards and loyalty oaths, of black
lists and Congressional hearings, of Hiss and Nixon, of the Rosenbergs and Roy Cohn. Before
the nightmare ends, he will be estranged from his wife and young son, alienated from his
friends, see his career – present and future – in shambles and stare into the final dark abyss of
his life. And all of it to satisfy the ambitions of a Senator up for re-election.

Ultimately, he will face a single choice – the same choice faced by hundred and even
thousands of people like him – to name the names of his former Party associates for the
Senate Committee on Internal Security and try to save his marriage and career or to stand
silent and risk everything he has or ever hopes to have. Finally, he is faced with the knowledge
that, no matter what he does, his life will be changed forever.

 

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