From the time she was a little girl, shuttled from one foster home to another, Claudia had longed for a family of her own. So when she marries Sam, her dream seems to have come true: not only has she found a devoted husband, but at last she has a loving mother, Eleanor. Sam's mother.
But the portrait of her perfect family begins to fracture and split as Eleanor--and everyone around ---descends into the nightmare of Alzheimer's. As agonizing year follows agaonizing year, Claudia bears the brunt of Eleanor's increasing dementia: her violent eruptions, speechlessness, incontinence, even suicide attempts. Soon the money disappears, Claudia loses her business, and her marriage to Sam is on the verge of collapse. Desperate, driven to the edge by the very ties of love and commitment that she craved all of her life, and helpless in the face of Eleanor's condition, Caludia reaches the breaking point. An still she loves the mother she had watied her whole life to find. But when Eleanor is discovered dead with a collection of empty pill bottles beside her bed, the unthinkable seems possible, and Claudia is charged with her murder.
But the portrait of her perfect family begins to fracture and split as Eleanor--and everyone around ---descends into the nightmare of Alzheimer's. As agonizing year follows agaonizing year, Claudia bears the brunt of Eleanor's increasing dementia: her violent eruptions, speechlessness, incontinence, even suicide attempts. Soon the money disappears, Claudia loses her business, and her marriage to Sam is on the verge of collapse. Desperate, driven to the edge by the very ties of love and commitment that she craved all of her life, and helpless in the face of Eleanor's condition, Caludia reaches the breaking point. An still she loves the mother she had watied her whole life to find. But when Eleanor is discovered dead with a collection of empty pill bottles beside her bed, the unthinkable seems possible, and Claudia is charged with her murder.
