When Michael Mewshaw receives a call from a stranger who says she has reason
to believe he is her biological father, Mewshaw realizes he has been half dreading,
half hoping for this to happen for over thirty years. Just like the young woman
who wants to find the last piece to the puzzle of her life, he thinks it's possible that
in the same process he will discover the answers to questions that have plagued
him for decades. But first he has to make sure she is who she claims to be.
In this fascinating memoir, Mewshaw confronts his own past, the chaos of his
family, and complicated memories of the woman he once loved who went on to
success as an ambassador, Undersecretary of State, and a member of one of
America's most influential families. His unusual role in the baby's birth, her adoption,
and, now, her search for her biological parents sets the stage for a revealing
personal odyssey that offers a quest for identity and a journey of discovery, an
obsession with recapturing the past and righting old wrongs, and the constant
potential for disappointment balanced against the possibility of redemption.
Along the way, by rediscovering who he was and who he has become, he finds
his own life enriched.