Rose Winer is having panic attacks about a man climbing in the window and raping her. Returning to New York from Berkeley, where free love is rampant, she hopes that sleeping in her parents' house will make her feel safe. When that doesn't work, she begins psychoanalysis.

Through her turbulent relationship with her analyst, Joan Wiseman, Rose's life is changed forever. She is transformed from a wounded, angry, and insecure girl to a happily married psychoanalyst and university professor. But when her critical mother has a stroke and Joan gets cancer, all of Rose's progress is put to the test.

Part fiction, part memory, this book is an intimate look at psychoanalysis through the eyes of a patient and an analyst, based on Roberta Satow's experience as both. While there are many books about transference and countertransference in psychoanalysis, this book illustrates the depth of the connection between the patient and analyst, their experience of each other, and the curative effects of that relationship for both of them.