There is an old saying that you have to go through hell in order to find heaven. James Perdue, now an adult and struggling as a writer, finds that this is very true. At odds with his father, and struggling to find where he fits in, James married the wrong woman not once, but twice. Both marriages end because of dishinesty, abusiveness, amd cheating.
When he finally finds someone who will love him back the way he loves them, he doesn't get very long with them before death takes them from him. The hell that ensues after onlyt makes the resulting paradise that much better. And well earned.