In the center of novel there is history of Ann Керриган, that begins, when her twelve-year, a father takes in guests. Ann is then charmed by a great deal - and enormous house with a kind on a sea, and feeling of secret, the relations of her father and paterfamilias, мистера Стайлза are obvolute that. Years will pass, the father of Ann will disappear by mysterious character, and Ann again will meet with мистером Стайлзом. And this meeting will invert her life. A "Manhatten-whip carries us in the world, where gangsters, seamen, divers and trade-union figures, dwell. Thus at that time, an end of the thirtieth is beginning of fortieth, when life and самоощущение of people changed headily, America changed, the whole world changed.