How did a volume of sixty-eight short stories by John Cheever - previously published, but never published as a collection - ignite four years of litigation with as many shocking reversals of fortune as a Grisham thriller?

Who were the players and what were the real issues behind this precedent-setting case, a poisonous imbroglio lasting from 1988 to 1992 that split the publishing world, ran up million-dollar legal fees, and ended with an Illinois Supreme Court decision that could radically alter how publishers and authors do business everywhere?

As only a participant could, Anita Miller leads us through the complicated, contradictory, and often riveting proceedings behind four judicial rulings in state and federal courts.