This novel is about Mildred Cabell, a woman who, in late middle age, realizes she has always felt "too little." In trying to understand why, she opens "a place in my head where I've kept all the sadness." There she finds childhood memories of the thousand daily cruelties of a hurting family that has been passing its pain along for generations. Mildred begins to feel a tenderness towards herself, as well as an anger at the culture for its ongoing blind disregard of the emotional needs of not only its children but also its entire citizenry. And so her rescue begins.