Suzanne Goldsmith, a young Harvard-educated reporter, signed on for her "season of service" with City Year, the Boston-based community service programme endorsed by President Clinton and others as a model for the nation. Often referred to as "an urban peace corps", City Year brings a group of men and women together for a year of poublic service projects with a range of goals, from helping communities in need to instilling a sense of citizenship in the City Year team members. This is the story of that year. The author tells of how, together with a varied team, she helped renovate buildings for the homeless, tutored schoolchildren, reclaimed a community garden from drug dealers, and organized a community street-cleaning day. The year involved gratifying work - but it also involved an unwanted pregnancy, financial troubles, and arrests. One member was shot dead, and another ended up in jail.