Coney Island, 1939. On the eve of World War II, fifteen-year-old Harry Catzker spends his after-school hours on his bike, picking up betting slips from Coney Island carnival freaks for the local bookie and racing his imaginary sworn enemy, German Captain Ziegenbaum, whose ship menaces the coastline.

As the lights of the Cyclone and Luna Park glow in the Coney Island night, Harry finds a surrogate family in the freaks and low-lifes. A premature victim of Weltschmerz, Harry ponders life, art, philosophy, and politics with Aba, a Yiddish poet who boards with his family, yet he is unable to shake the dark foreboding of a disaster that finally materializes, changing his life utterly.

Coney, soaked through with atmosphere and guided by an uncommon comic touch, has the stark intensity of a Weegee photograph, the heart of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime , and the soul of an Isaac Bashevis Singer novel.