Fran Benedetto is married to a local policeman. When the beatings started she felt that things would change, besides, she loved him. Then she told herself that having a baby would change things; then she felt that their son deserved a family, a father. The police were no help. He was one of their men. Plus, she loved him.
One day, after a particularly bad beating, she saw the look in ten-year-old Robert's eyes and knew that she had to get the two of them away. At the hospital where she worked, she had listened to a woman who worked with an organization that helped women find a new identity in a new place.
Now, know as Beth, she and her son have started a new life, always aware that one slip up and her husband has the resources to find them.
Anna Quindlen does an excellent job of getting us into Beth's head. Her son does not understand why his father is no longer part of his life. It is difficult for Beth, let alone Robert, to keep her new story straight and the difference in their new lifestyle is difficult. On top of the new hardships, there is always the fear that they will be found and the death threats will become real.
This is not a happy book. Domestic violence is not a happy subject. It takes an author of Quindlen's skill to keep it human and suspenseful. This is not a story that the more lurid talk shows would appreciate. It is a study of a woman with a terrible secret. It is a book to be shared with girlfriends with the prayer that none of them need it.
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