Martha's Vineyard -- sitting green and lush off the coast of Cape Cod -- has been an island of fantasies-realized for generations.

Even before the Clintons established the Vineyard as their vacation spot, the island had a firmly established reputation as a special place. It was the island home of the Kennedys. It is home to James Taylor and his brood. The Vineyard is also the home of fishermen, of Native Americans, of organic farmers, of William Styron, of a centuries-old summer colony for middle-class African Americans, of glamorous summer people, and of not-so glamorous summer people. The Vineyard has come to occupy a sacred place in our great American dream -- and these days it is a dream everyone wants to be a part of.

Fascinated by the buzz surrounding this once serene island, Carpineto sets about getting to know the people who inhabit it -- those who are there for a lifetime or for an afternoon. She examines how the island has changed, where it has come from, and where it is going. What she finds may surprise a great many readers.