Care for the elderly and inheritance are the two areas most likely to cause disagreement within families, and this is no exception for the Perrimans. When Frank and Edith quietly sell their family home to their youngest son on the condition that they remain there until death, they believe that they are aiding their children financially as well as providing security for themselves. Little can they know just how this decision will later come to destroy the relationships with and between their children and that both will end their lives in unfamiliar surroundings. A situation develops that is disastrous for Edith and her daughter Dori and is not helped by the failures of the very organisations and institutions set up to help the elderly. In his book Shadows of The Women They Once Were Jonathan Fogell recounts a story, the theme of which will be sadly familiar to many of his readers. Can the family overcome their difficulties and will daughter Dori ever find the answers that she is seeking both before and after her mother's death?