This portrait of small-town life in Pennsylvania is seen through the eyes of Chiron, the centaur of Greek mythology. On the surface, this is a novel about teenager Peter Caldwell and his father George Caldwell, a schoolteacher at Olinger High. Gradually, however, it becomes clear that Peter and George are really Prometheus and Chiron, and that all the other characters and events find correspondences in Greek mythology. John Updike has said that this early novel is loosely based on his own relationship with his father, who was a schoolteacher.