The novel opens about ten years later. Ross is a single dad living in Boston. He and his business partner Dean are taking a chance and are opening a Mexican restaurant. The late seventies is a time of change, not just for Ross but for his whole generation. Life is getting more serious; school bells are ringing again. Ross must be a responsible restaurant manager. At the same time he is a bit of a peeping tom, spying on a woman who lives across the alley from him. And his ex-wife Laurel-still living at an almost abandoned School's Out-haunts his memories.

School's Out is a historical novel of the not-so-distant past, recalling the way things were almost half a century ago. The language, the attitudes, the details evoke the seventies as effectively as mood rings, Herbal Essence shampoo, disco, sideburns, and bell-bottom pants. Readers who were there and even those who weren't will feel immersed in the zeitgeist of that time.