"Somehow this had gotten deep. Deeper than I'd ever intended. Deeper than I'd been with anyone else. I didn't talk to people like this ... not even the therapists after I'd been discharged."

Joseph Clancey is a prisoner in his own mind. After surviving a brutal attack during his combat service in the United States Army, he's never spoken a word-using only scribbled notes in a notebook to communicate. No one knows how long he will have to endure this involuntary silence, but a new job as a handyman at the Filibrault Manor seems like the fresh start he's been looking for ......