The River Road is the story of the aftermath of a young man's tragic jump off the French King Bridge into the Connecticut River. David and Michael Sanderson are brothers who have been inseparable since childhood from each other and their neighbor's daughter, Kay. As David and Kay get older they begin a passionate and obsessive love affair. While the two of them are home from college on a break, they go out with Michael and wander the Connecticut River Valley at night, experimenting with drugs. At the nearby bridge over the dangerous river, David -- full of hubris and hallucinogens -- jumps, believing he can swim to the side of the cold, swollen river. With this one act, he sets in motion an inexorable chain of events that indelibly alters the lives of everyone involved -- the brother who watched from the car, the girlfriend who stood next to him and helped him climb onto the rail, and both sets of parents.

Told through the alternating voices of Kay, Michael, and David's father, Kevin, The River Road is a suspenseful narrative of the accusations, the investigation, and the trial that follows. It is also the tangled story of love and jealousy, of guilt and redemption. In the end, The River Road tells of the ways of survival and the endurance of love.