This riveting memoir of survival and transformation reveals the brutal details of the worst that can happen to an ordinary family and how they triumphed over adversity. It describes the true story of a daughter's decline into alcohol and drug addiction, prostitution and homelessness, and her mother's attempts to rescue her yet protect herself and her other children. Written as a dual narrative, mother and daughter give their first hand accounts of the years lost to addiction and despair, and the subsequent recovery and reconciliation. formation reveals all the brutal details of the worst that can happen to an ordinary family and how they triumphed over adversity.