Raised a Christian Scientist, Charlotte McGuffey has always been taught to solve her problems by denying their existence. But now, suffering from crippling insomnia, living with a husband she no longer cares for, and bewildered by a three-year-old son who still won't talk, Charlotte is starting to wonder whether this strategy is working. When her husband is killed in a sudden accident she packs her two young boys in the family car and takes off for Beede, Vermont-the town where her husband grew up and died. Here in Vermont, away from the watchful eyes of her older sisters, Charlotte begins to...

This collection demonstrates the importance of Mary Hays (1759-1843) as an advanced and innovative thinker, philosophical commentator, and writer of deliberately experimental fiction.