A writer spends decades profiling flawed men before discovering his charming, larger-than-life father led a secret life of affairs, gambling losses, and a hidden child—forcing him to reconcile the man who shaped him with his betrayals. Tom Junod's memoir-detective story explores whether a bad man can be a good father. Tom's father Lou modeled his entire masculinity—from grooming to seduction tactics—on 1930s movie stars rather than his own absent father, creating a carefully constructed persona he lived out daily.