Seven-year-old Anna will not understand what is about to happen. What will be scorched into her memory on this fateful day will be unthinkable. Happy-go-lucky Anna adores her older sister. Together, they climb trees, fly kites, and swing on their back yard swing set. In a moment, Anna will begin an agonizing journey, traumatized and alone that will last nearly ten years. Now seventeen, Anna's downward spiral has been easy to hide. She's the ninth child of ten, and distress is overlooked in the constant clamor of growing up in a huge family. But something is different this time around. As the...

Anna is stunned by her family's response after she returns home from being locked in a psych ward for three months. They are managing just as she remembers-uninterested and aloof. Anna's parents and eight siblings act as though psychiatrists and mental hospitals are routine, a circumstance far from the truth. Dr. Ellison, Anna's psychiatrist, is also perplexed. Could it be that Anna's family is mortified that one of their own couldn't survive without the help of others? Anna's family gathers for an unusual occasion on an unusual day. It's now or never. Anna makes a gut wrenching decision to...