"Anne Bolander had the great misfortune of losing her mother early in life, which left her in the care of a father, and later a stepmother, who showed little interest in raising a child that seemed slow to learn. In 1959, her parents took Anne to the Johns Hopkins University where experts declared her to be retarded, when in fact she was deaf. But Anne's parents accepted this assessment and put her in the Stoutamyre School for Special Education in Bridgewater, Virginia.".

"At the Stoutamyre School, Anne was punished for every rule broken, yet the only way to learn the rules was by being punished. Children's names were not used; Anne was assigned a number instead, #87 (an abstract symbol for her, since she had never been taught numbers), which told her when she was allowed to go to the bathroom, after #86.".

"Anne endured five years in this oppressive environment until her parents moved to Pennsylvania. By chance, she was placed in St. Mary's of Providence Center, where teachers correctly assessed her as deaf, not retarded. But after only a year, her parents brought Anne back home again, where she suffered many more years of abuse. As she grew, the physical attacks abated, but the emotional scars left her socially ill-prepared as an adult.

The damage led to many other betrayals by false friends and others willing to take advantage of her."--BOOK JACKET.