"Thorns of the Rose" is a contemporary story of an unwed mother who has an eleven-year-old daughter born with spina bifida. Carolyn Parker, thirty-two, blames herself for her child's affliction. She believes her careless sixties lifestyle put Nancy in a wheelchair. Since birth, the girl has been hidden from all but her doctor, a few associates and close friends. Carolyn has scratched, clawed and worked her way to an executive position at a major San Diego ad agency in order to afford Nancy's treatments and therapy. She has built a wall around herself and her child. Except for necessary professional contacts, she'll have nothing to do with men. John Freeman, a thirty-six-year-old Vietnam vet, enters Carolyn's life by way of twelve-year-old Timmy Collins. The boy, hurting from his parents' recent divorce, runs on the beach with John and they've become friends. Timmy meets Carolyn first. She runs on the same beach. He introduces her to John. Sparks fly and the lives of all three, as well as Nancy's, change forever. The story is set in San Diego, CA in the spring/summer of 1978.