Mary Jane Nealon's decision to become a nurse took her far and wide - first as a flying nurse, untethered and free to follow friends and jobs from New Mexico to Georgia - and later within various communities in New York. Beautiful Unbroken details Nealon's life of caregiving, during which she treated young boys with cancer in the 70s, men and women with AIDs in the 80s and homeless men in the New York flop houses of the 90s. Through compelling, poetic prose, Nealon shows death from every angle - the young, the old, strangers, friends and family.