""Today I am going to tell the story of this family," said Rosemary. She put her finger on the book and began to read. "The story of this family is the story of a happy group of people. A sister and little brother, a Mommy and Daddy. They stay together and live happily ever after."".

"But even in the 1950s, living happily ever after is something much sought after, seldom achieved. Young Robbie O'Conor and his older sister Rosemary inhabit a world in which their mother spends her afternoons writing poetry, their father sells big, finned cars at the local Ford dealership, and their Midwestern neighborhood sleeps mysteriously under thick blankets of snow.

But Robbie is stricken with a disease which saps the blood and heart from him - and just when he needs Rosemary most, something cataclysmic occurs. When Robbie seeks to regain his fairly tale world, he discovers himself in a nightmare both disturbing and profound."--BOOK JACKET.