Set in 1949 in the mining city of Butte, Montana, a world unto itself sitting a mile above sea level in the southwestern corner of the state, Around the Horn takes its readers on a journey into the world that was with the hope of discovering what could be-both now and in the decades and centuries to come. After World War II baseball was king in America as well as in Butte. As result, it can serve as a metaphor for life, holding out infinite possibilites because of its freedom from the ticking of the clock. To score a run the ballplayer must return to home plate, the place from which he started. Similarly, to complete our own journey "around the horn," we must, as T. S. Eliot reminds us, return to the point from which we started and know the place for the first time. Around the Horn celebrates the adventure and shows us the way.