In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the hidden social history of adoption before - and its lasting legacy. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.