In April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. "Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved," it read, "but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me..."That same spring, Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage-a...

The author traces the roots of her own and her sister's past victimization, trying to determine how two successful women ended up in physically or emotionally abuse relationships with men.