David Grenville, the scion of a wealthy and influential family with roots well-entrenched in the "American experience," meets and falls in love with Anna Kraley, the daughter of Eastern European immigrants. But their love affair is doomed from the beginning. David is the Catholic priest of the church that Anna's family attends. When Anna discovers that she is pregnant, David's family helps her flee to Chicago where she gives birth to her son, Mark. Upon returning to her parent's home, she hides Mark's true paternity from her family and friends.
Anna also shelters Mark from the truth of his birth, fabricating a father that never really existed. Yet a woman who once loved David seeks revenge and wants to expose Mark to the truth of his parentage. Can Mark survive the knowledge of his parents' illicit love affair?
Through a series of flashbacks and reminiscences, La Salle County contrasts the lives of David and Mark. As father and son review their lives, their stories reflect their coming of age during the turbulent times that marked the past century.
