The ad hoc community of Kochville springs up overnight when the participants in an all-night vigil protesting homelessness become semipermanent residents of City Hall Park. In the shadow of City Hall, but with no one to guide them, the "residents" of Kochville must decide how to govern themselves. The rich and vivid cast of characters includes Duke York, the former jazz musician haunted by the separation from his wife and daughters; Marc Greenberg, the well-intentioned but naive organizer; Ellen McCarthy, who finds herself coming alive after an unhappy marriage by working with the homeless; Larry Locke, the Vietnam vet who becomes the toast of New York City at Kochville's height; and Mayor Koch himself, a politician's politician, facing his waterloo.