Jake Hermann is frustrated: He's been out of work for a year, hasn't had a date in eons, and his softball coach doesn't play to win. When an umpire's bad call leads Jake into a relationship with a woman scarred by trauma, he thinks he may have found "the one." Then suddenly, after a single spoken word, the romance is over. His life takes another turn for the worse when Jake's grandmother, an outspoken, earthy woman who rescued him from dysfunctional parents when he was a toddler, suffers a series of mini-strokes. He soon finds himself with a new job - caregiver for someone with dementia. The Loss Syndrome is a story about people set adrift by brittle minds, especially those haunted by nightmarish tragedy and the crippling demons of post-traumatic stress disorder. The overriding themes, though, are strength of character, restoration, and love lost and found.