Successful Yale Law School grad Andy Simonson returns to Milwaukee if not in triumph, at least thinking he is better off than his blue-collar upbringing. However, coming home proves to be less than it's cracked up to be. This portrait of family dynamics pivots on secrets between generations and how the shadows of the past can darken the future.

Andy Simonson is a man who doesn't accept Thomas Wolfe's iconic statement about returning home. Having received a law degree from a prestigious Eastern university and marrying a beautiful woman from Boston, Andy intends to return to Milwaukee if not in triumph at least significantly better off than he was when growing up there in poverty with his widowed mother. He joins a big downtown law firm with the help of a childhood friend and buys a large home on the lake where he settles in with his wife. Alas, things don't turn out as he expected. His mother dies shortly after his arrival and exacts a death bed promise that he keep her run-down duplex on the East Side as well as her tenants, one of whom, the son a Milwaukee mob boss, hasn't paid his rent in months. Moreover, while his old friends are glad to see him back in town, Andy's return is not as glorious as he hoped. Milwaukee, though rich in local culture and atmosphere, has done just fine without him and now he must find a way to make peace with the new reality he's created. A Milwaukee Inheritance is a finely-textured story of disillusionment and discovery while drawing heavily on the rich background of Milwaukee culture and history.