Andria is a fugitive of her own grief after losing a baby in a car accident five years before. She has lived in quiet isolation until an accidental friendship with Quentin lures her from hiding and brings to light a grief festering from neglect. Resurfacing memories force Andria to confront the past she left open, like a book unfinished, when she left her husband Brett and three-year-old Lizzie several months after the funeral. Andria returns and is pulled back into a world where she longs again to be a mother to Lizzie and fit back into the place she abandoned. The Pulse of Hopeful Life brings to light countless questions, but most important-how could a mother leave her family? Many novels have been written about the children who have suffered abandonment, but this novel takes you on the journey of the mother who has made the decision to leave and how she tries to piece the remains back together.