Like the blues—sweet, sad and full of truth— this masterly work of fiction rocks us with powerful emotions. In it are anger and pain, but above all, love—affirmative love of a woman for her man, the sustaining love of a black family. Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous tombs. But his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby... a starkly realisitic tale... and a powerful endictment of American concepts of justice and punishment in our time.