When Helen McCain begins experiencing terrible migraines, neither she nor her family realize that this is the first step in a long, harrowing journey that will span almost a decade-and end in her death at the hands of Alzheimer's disease.

At the time, Helen, her college professor husband, and their nurse daughter acknowledge the headaches are bad-but have no idea that they signal the presence of an insidious disease. It isn't until she begins forgetting simple things she has always known-how to cook meals, how to get home from the store-that her daughter suspects Helen needs a thorough...