William James, the psychologist. Henry James, the writer. Alice James, the sister? Alice James spends most of her short life in bed. Henry labels it her solution to the 'practical problem of life', and William is too busy with his work, and too far away, to pay much attention. Her lifelong companion and carer, Katharine Loring, is a constant support, but in the midst of coping with Alice's pain and frustration, the two women are faced with the shock of discovering Henry has made use of them in his fiction. Alice's witty voice rises vividly from the page as she casts an acerbic eye on the characters who populate her life and on the tensions between Katharine and Henry in this compelling fictional memoir.