Harriet and David Levatt defy the chaotic, unconstrained 1960s with a closely-guarded, nurturing family environment. Into an already large family, which Harriet tends while David works, their fifth child is born. Ben, an ugly, violent, demanding baby, is shockingly alien to their comfortable, kind home--his mother cannot love him and his father cannot even touch him. The four other children are afraid of him. Their external family and friends stay away. This novel explores a family's--and by extension, society's--attempts to deal with the brutality that exists within it, despite efforts to insulate members from it.

Gilchrist writes effervescently about her event-filled life in these essays taken largely from her NPR broadcasts.