A memoir in which the author discusses her struggles with Type 1 rapid-cycle bipolar disorder, a diagnosis she received at age twenty-four, looking back to reassess the affects of the condition on her life since childhood.

"At the center of winter, in Motley, Minnesota, Arnold Schiller gives in to the oppressive season that reigns outside and also to his own inner demons - he commits suicide, leaving a devastated family in his wake." "Claire Schiller, wife and mother, takes shelter from the emotional storm with her husband's parents but must ultimately emerge from her grief and help her two young children to recover. Esau, her oldest, is haunted by the same darkness...