Jesters is about a realistic middle-class life full of conflict, drama, hilarity, love, sex, failure, and success, with underlying significance in the nation’s cultural life. 

Brothers Theo and Tom emerge from a creative but dysfunctional Chicago family. Discord between them is the engine of the plot, veering beginning to end from acts of sibling affection to extremely contentious rivalry. 

Theo, when grown, at first 6’4” and overweight, fascinated by vulnerable human nature rises from creative entrepreneurial failure to amazing successes, increasingly trim and handsome. Tom, athletic and, once grown, tall and good-looking, starved for welcoming family connection, pursues interaction with celebrities - movie stars on film-making assignments in Chicago, the troop that founded Second City, famed musicians, prominent political activists, and a career in Hollywood. Theo’s profit-seeking, manipulative self-interest puts the family’s survival in play. 

Females are pivotal throughout. The 20th century’s dramatic social changes and new technologies are virtual players that illuminate the 21st century movie-making, music business, sexual relations, peacetime military service, family life, and opportunity for young adults.