Julia Craig was born in Los Angeles 1946 but was never an LA Chick. She moved to Oregon to attune to a more country life, to teach in country schools, settle there and raise her two children-tending to her gardens and enjoying the natural world of the Pacific Northwest.

"Get out of my house and never come back!", Julia's mother demanded. Why would the mother of an overly compliant forty-year-old daughter wish her ill? Might it be the chance that her dying father reveals the deep family secrets that had lived unnoticed in Julia's life to date? She eventually absorbed his one, nondescript clue during her short bedside visit with him. Then, nothing would deter her from unveiling the unthinkable and at the same time release her from its prison, transforming her into a less compliant, real self.