Abby loved Ryan, but her relationship with him couldn't withstand a felony conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and a five-year sentence. Mine could.

In the Ether is a reflection on a single episode of my life-a sieve through which I have understood everything that came before more completely and, most likely, will filter all that happens next. It tells the story of raising a daughter who chose to live in opposition to nearly every value I hold and who, at seventeen, fell in love with a twenty-two-year-old Marine who had cause enough to resent life-yet loved it more fully than anyone else I've ever known. Ryan was a miracle.