Engagement is a biography/novel spanning two generations of a family bound by a shared commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of poor families and communities in developing countries, though their paths differed greatly. The story opens with the meeting of Joan, an English artist and teacher, and Ion, an Irish magistrate and judge, at an official reception held in Kingston by the colonial Governor-General of Jamaica to celebrate the coronation of King George VI in 1937.

This introduction is followed by accounts of their lives and work in Jamaica, as well as the international commitments and complexities of their sons’ careers: one, a multicultural secular architect, scholar, and policy adviser; the other, a devoted evangelist and educational entrepreneur working with poor children in marginalized urban communities.