When in 1705 Kornél Csillag’s grandfather returns destitute to his native Hungary from exile, he happens across a gold pocket watch gleaming in the mud. The shipwrecked fortunes of the Csillag family suddenly take a new and marvelous turn. The golden watch brings an unexpected gift to the future generations of firstborn sons: clairvoyance. Passed down from father to son, this gift offers the ability to look into the future or back into the past --- for some it is considered a blessing, for others a curse. No matter the outcome, each generation records its astonishing, vivid, and revelatory visions in a battered journal that becomes known as The Book of Fathers.

For three hundred years the Csillag family line meanders unbroken across Hungary’s rivers and vineyards, through a land overrun by wolves and bandits, scarred by plague and massacre, and brutalized by despots. Impetuous, tenderhearted, and shrewd, the Csillags give birth to scholars and gamblers, artists and entrepreneurs. Led astray by unruly passions, they marry pious French noblewomen and thieving alehouse wenches. They wander from home but always return, and through it all The Book of Fathers bears witness to holocaust and wedding feast alike.