A memoir of Johnson's unusual upbringing during the 1970s and '80s, interwoven with the story of her transition to parenthood in post-recession Portland, Oregon.

A memoir of Johnson's unusual upbringing during the 1970s and '80s, interwoven with the story of her transition to parenthood in post-recession Portland, Oregon.

In the weeks after her first child is born, Jessica E. Johnson receives an email from her mother that contains artifacts of the author's early childhood: scans of Polaroids and letters her mother wrote in mountain west mining camps and ghost towns-places without running water, companions, or help. Awash in love and restlessness, Johnson begins to see how the bedrock images of her isolated upbringing have stayed with her, even when she believed she was removing herself from their logic.