Thaddeus Kaufman, the son of booksellers, and Grace Cornell, raised in a basement apartment she longs to escape, meet at a neighborhood art fair in Chicago. Soon after, they head to New York, aloft on the wings of young love. Jennings Stratton, the son of a caretaker, and Muriel Sanchez, the daughter of a cop, meet in a house he is refurbishing in New Mexico, and they, too, head for the big city. In a vast Hudson River estate, the lives of the two couples ultimately intertwine. Thaddeus has made it big, setting off a chain reaction of envy among his friends and forever changing the dynamic of his marriage. And Jennings, hoping to transcend his reputation as the local Casanova, has ventured into a cycle of theft and betrayal that threatens to destroy the fragile life of his family. Funny and cutting, River Under the Road is Scott Spencer's masterpiece of all that lies beneath our everyday lives-a story about the pursuit of love, art, and money, and the inevitable reckoning that awaits us all.