"In a small rural town outside Seattle, Joanna, an Ethiopian girl adopted by a white fundamentalist Christian family, is found dead of hypothermia in her own backyard--setting in motion a gripping journey into the complexities of human emotion. How does it feel to be a child taken into a family that doesn't share her background, her religion, or the color of her skin? What does it mean to be a mother on trial for murder? And why would a lawyer choose...

First Sgt. Charles Monroe King keeps a journal for his newborn son while stationed overseas. His wife, the senior editor for the New York Times, relates the story of their relationship to their son as he grows up.