This book is a study detailing what happens to people and what life is like in a rehabilitation program. The program discussed is embedded in an institution, called "Farewell Hospital" by the authors, that was designed to fill a demand for facilities for those judged unable to live on their own. Due to physical or mental handicaps and no family, friends, or other social agents who are willing to make a home for them outside of a public institution, these patients were placed in a rehabilitation unit.

Most patients were placed with the rehabilitation unit as a brief interlude before...