The book focuses on the nearly 3 years that Lee Harvey Oswald spent in the Soviet Union. Savodnik attempts to figure out the motives behind Oswald killing John F. Kennedy. Savodnik calls Oswald an interloper, someone who flees “from his old life and inserts himself into a new one adorned with new people and a new landscape and a new language or accent” with the hope that this time he might find a permanent home. Savodnik doesn’t just show us who Oswald knew and where he lived; he also shows us the physiological impact of the relationships Oswald developed and the status he enjoyed. In summary, Savodnik concludes that Oswald’s murder of the president was impersonal: Kennedy was just the man who walked in when the band played “Hail to the Chief”