Tom Hamilton is a twenty one year old just starting out at Oxford. While he is unpacking his trunk, a photograph falls out. The photo is of his mother, Annie, and a man he doesn't recognize, but a man who someone thinks looks enough like him to mistake him for the person in the photo. The inscription on the back of the photo is signed with a J. Tom calls his mother about the photo, and is not thrilled with the answer she gives him. He makes it his mission to find out about the man. He makes some inquiries about his mother's life at college, and finds out that she dropped out in 1970. He does the math and realizes she was most likely pregnant with him. He looks into the birth records and finds out that he has two birth certificates. He looks into his parent's marriage records, and finds out that they weren't married when he was born. Is it possible that the man in the photograph is his father and not Edward?

Annie Hamilton is taken aback by the reappearance of a photograph that she had forgotten about. She remembers the man in the photo, Jordan Hope, and tries to steer her son away from his foolish notion that he may be his father. Jordan Hope is now running for President of the United States, and can ill afford the publicity brought on by the rumor of an illegitimate son. Annie calls on Rose Cassidy, a friend from her days in Oxford, and now an editor of a New York magazine. Will their plan to stop Tom run awry?

Robyn Sisman has written a truly enchanting tale. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP has three distinct parts. The first is the emergence of the photograph in England in 1992. The second takes us back to the sixties and the wild days at Oxford. The third brings us back to 1992 and to the States where Jordan Hope is running for president. I enjoyed the whole story and how the trip back in time was an integral part in the telling of the tale. The chapter headings were fun, as were the crazy characters. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP is a charming story.