""I wanted to tell a story about adolescents who knew what they were doing and why."" Elaine Sommers Rich gives this as a reason for having written this book. Along with Esther Miller, a Voluntary Service unit member, Rich takes us onto the receiving ward of a state mental hospital in the summer of 1948 following her freshman year in college. The charge attendant on Esther's ward has a ""treat 'em rough"" attitude toward the mentally ill, an attitude which immediately poses serious problems for Esther. Her emotional life is further complicated when she becomes infatuated with tall, blond...