On a hot summer night in 1962, Danny Cogan and his best friend, Matt Lasker, watch as two of their friends engage in a brutal fight that leaves one of them dead. Danny and Matt, the only witnesses to the crime, hide the truth to protect the killer. They keep their awful secret, but doing so splits their friendship apart.
Forty years later, Danny lives “a hundred miles and a universe away” from the neighborhood where he grew up. All is well in his comfortable suburban life until, unexpectedly, his sister telephones to tell him that she has seen the supposedly dead boy, now a sinister adult, in a Boston restaurant. In his struggle to deal with the truth after so many years, Danny realizes that his life has been irrevocably affected by events that occurred long before he was born. He remembers growing up in the early 1960s and the experiences of his relatives and friends. As he relives the actions leading up to the murder and its terrible aftermath, he comes to understand the consequences of remaining silent so many years ago.
Sin of Omission paints a picture of Suffolk Square, an ethnic neighborhood outside of Boston. It describes its inhabitants’ simmering prejudices that have traveled from the old country and re-emerged over three generations.