The first book of the series begins with a carton of letters and a stack of hundred dollar bills - an inheritance Radkin has received from his recently deceased dad. As Radkinís father was a life-long union activist who died disillusioned and broke, where did all this money come from? Tracing his fatherís mysterious life from clues in letters written aboard a remarkable merchant ship, bound for North Africa during WW II, he stumbles upon a compelling story of one manís quest for social justice in the aftermath of the cold war.