Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.

On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam built to create a man-made lake for America's wealthiest businessmen collapsed, unleashing twenty million tons of water onto the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, below; told in the voices of six children and many others this is the story of the ordinary people of the town, their losses and their survival--and of the bitter aftermath when those for whom the dam was built denied all responsibility for the shoddy dam...