Life hasn't always been easy for Jill Allen, whose parents died when she was a teen. These days, however, she enjoys her comfortable Southern California existence as a wife and mother of a college-age daughter.

But then Aunt Molly, who raised Jill and her sister, tests positive for a BRCA gene mutation. Jill is confronted with the harsh reality that she too might be BRCA positive, with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Will that mean a mastectomy? Or surgery to remove her ovaries?

Meanwhile, Jill is shocked to realize that her husband has betrayed her. With her once-happy...