This is a memoir that puts readers inside the head and under the skin of abused women. It shows how wife battering is far from restricted to a social or economic underclass, that it happens to women who are talented, independent, confident and educated, to women who had happy childhoods, loving parents, to women who have everything going for them, to women trapped in a physically and emotionally abusive marriage. Many women will recognize the fierce devotion to family that bound Weldon to the man she married, and they will likewise find inspiration in her journey to reclaim the future for herself and her children.