In 1849, Phineas Gage is a young man adapting to life after a traumatic brain injury. In a fashionable New York 'freak show,' P. T. Barnum promoted him as 'The Man with his Brains Blown Out."

With first-person narratives, Phineas, his sister, Phoebe, and her husband, David, talk about their stories; how they coped with Phineas's recovery, the challenges of moving from New Hampshire to San Francisco, and how the man's skull and tamping iron ended up at a Harvard Museum, where they remain today.

Based on a true story and known facts (at the time of writing), this novella focuses on the family who experienced a tragedy, and it reminds us that Phineas was so much more than the first neuroscience and psychology casebook study or popular culture icon.