In a charming, brutally candid account of his time in New York, the author describes marching in civil protests and being arrested, his accomplished acquaintances, living an active gay life, and finally becoming a noted writer and Rome Prize winner. But then the mantle of the AIDS epidemic falls heavily on the city, and the life of open gay love and sex is replaced by unrelenting fear. Caldwell's response to the epidemic is to become intimately involved as a volunteer at Saint Vincent's hospital, and in a twist of fate, a love that has haunted him for decades finds fulfillment in a strange and unexpected way. In the Shadow of the Bridge is an important chronicle of the changing tide of artistic and gay life in New York City before and during the plague years.