This book is the story of the last two years in the life of a bright, expressive and courageous woman dying of ovarian cancer, as told by her husband through the journal he kept during her illness. Eric and Joan Robinson knew of her prognosis when they married; together, they made a conscious decision to spend with each other what little time Joan had left. It is an honest and often harrowing account of two people's failures and triumphs, as they tried to make sense of a life totally undermined by terminal disease. Eric describes his daily routine of nursing his increasingly incapacitated wife and the perennial problems of hospitalization, housekeeping and finance, all of which he juggled while trying to keep up with his responsibilities as a college professor. He describes his tormented emotional state, which became a jumble of intense love, resentment, devotion, fear, anger and even disgust at Joan's physical deterioration.