Divorce became a rampant phenomenon in the 1970s, especially in California after then-Governor Ronald Reagan instituted the first no-fault divorce law in the U.S. in 1969. The American economy began a long trend around the same time of flattening or lowering wages and standard of living for those in the middle and working classes, compromising the ability of a single working parent- previously, almost always the father- from being able to support a family. He was raised in the jaws of both of these phenomena. The trauma of his parents' divorce when he was young tore down the walls of his world, and was vividly reawakened when his own daughter was nearly two years old and his first wife filed for divorce without cause (no abuse, infidelity, just an "it's not working out," breakup kind of thing). Over a decade later, remarried with two small children and shared custody of his barely-teen daughter, his wife is an overworked nurse. A years-experienced teacher not yet credentialed in his newly-adopted state, underemployment haunts him and stresses the marriage. The mortgage, expenses and ever-growing debt make his continued failure to earn enough untenable- and he fears yet another divorce among other unendurable "options" if things don't change. Something unexpected occurs which appears to change all of this, to dissolve these (financial) obstacles all at once. When you get what you want-- what you absolutely need--sometimes life presents even bigger problems.