1963. Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo " Half" Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and thereby " partaking of something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack...