This is about the adventures of a perpetual outsider. She is unsure of who she should be. Through the accident of her birth, the author records the changing values of the times she lived through. There are many stories of adopted children and their struggle with identity. Uniquely, the author inherited her birth mothers notebooks and is able to include her voice along with her own. She is at times chaotic and always uncertain as to who she should be. Only late in life does she find resolution as to the meaning of identity.