Boston beat cop Danny Coughlin longs to step out of the shadow of his father, a legendary police captain. But his resolve is put to the test when he attempts to infiltrate the bands of anarchists and radicals threatening the city. Caught up in a vortex of change, Danny becomes entangles with an Irish immigrant maid and makes the acquaintance of Luther Laurence, a black man on the lam after a murder in Tulsa. Touching on such historic events as the Spanish Influenza pandemic and the Boston Police Strike of 1919, the Given Day is Lehane at his finest.