upstanding young athelete and teacher, missing WWII through poor eyesight, finds domestic enemy to pit his strength against, polio epidemic in summer of 1944. (view spoiler)[ Ultimately found wanting, fleeing his urban playground summer job where polio if rife, to the woodland summer camp where his girlfriend is working. He is conflicted at this apparently cowardly decision, and this is compounded when it emerges he is carrying the disease and may have been responsible for spreading (hide spoiler)] 
 closes on him as old man, who has physical and mental scars from the summer and has retreated from life - may have been more interesting if the aftermath rather than the summer was the focus 
 also jarring that at many points in the story he is refered to as Mr Cantor (rather than just Bucky), kept him at a distance