A gentle childhood implodes in an instant in this poignant memoir, depositing an only child atop the rubble. With a demolished mother and a fleeing father, a young girl traverses the terrain of her fractured family in the 1950s, when such collapses were unusual and shameful. Through heartfelt narrative, lyrical portrayal, and winning wit, author Nancy Hill underscores themes both personal and universal, peppered with remembrances of the "good old days," like fish stick dinners, pogo sticks, and Boone's Farm Apple wine. Her recollections evoke generous doses of anger, laughter, tears, and consternation. On this coming-of-age journey, she negotiates jarring switchbacks-from typical to traumatic-over and again. Through it all, this vulnerable daughter, yearning for care and stability, transforms into an independent young woman left to assimilate a hard lesson-that the ones to whom we are closest can hurt us the most. Raw, honest, and inspiring, is a testament to family, to the quest for forgiveness, and to reclaiming something of value from the shards of a shattered youth.