The story of one woman's life that will touch the heart of the reader. Born to alcoholic parents, her first years are filled with fighting and discord, and even a bit of incest, until she is nine and her parents divorce. In the following year, life disintegrates through several moves across the country, an alcoholic stepfather, and separation from her older sister, her only security. In that year, she attends five schools, and will attend fourteen before her school days are done. At ten, she and her sister are taken away from their mother, and Ruth moves through six foster homes, the last one quite oppressive. She then faces pregnancy and is forced to relinquish her baby. Upon marriage, life seems wonderful until an accident almost kills her husband. Her second daughter brings true meaning to her life, but due to her own divorce, she must raise her daughter alone. She goes on to begin to grow, searches and finds her first daughter and begins to face the demons of her childhood, finally achieving self worth and confidence, until one day her life is once again shattered.