Given the situation, that gunshot would have happened sooner or later. Two families will have their lives fit together like puzzle pieces and the picture will be much uglier than one would have ever expected. Roberto and Rafael. Their wives, children, friends, neighbors, employers, and workmates. Stories will be slowly arranged, culminating in a single life-changing moment that affects everyone. This is a dramatic narrative about a protagonist who is the embodiment of hypocrisy in modern world, and topics that tell the sad story of our time: guns, homophobia, racism, hate speech on social media, harassment, bullying, and the myth of meritocracy. Resisting all that, however, characters opposing such path, which fuels aggression in society, persist in believing a world of peace, tolerance, and civility is possible. After all who are the real good citizens?

The story opens with a gunshot. Who shot it? Who was shot? Who was witness? What are the consequences? A police investigation weaves the narrative, revealing leads through reports. Parallel stories about the lives of two families are told from two months before the gunshot. As one family falls apart intolerant, the other one rebuilds their relationship while rediscovering love. Connected virtually and in real life, the diverse subplots progress to the point they are “perfect” circumstances for a gunshot, and then everyone has their life changed forever. With hypocrisy as main character and based on real-life speeches this story resonates with readers who have already had enough of intolerance, which transforms otherwise calm people into unrecognizable cruel beings. Invested in rough terrain this narrative sheds light on topics so far only spoken in whispers and very needed in fiction writing.