Physicists tell us that the past and future exist at the same time as the present. They are simply found in different parts of the universe's four-dimensional fabric called space-time. The author, utilizing her journals from the time she was ten, imagines traveling around in space-time.
Her baby boomer generation was the first generation where women on a large scale did the near-impossible juggling act of raising children while working outside the home. She travels in space-time to tell the story of her struggle to obtain a college education and a career while raising three children as a single mother. It is a story of liberation, spiritual epiphany, and how her hero, Jack London, shaped her life. Jack London, in his semibiography, Martin Eden, influenced not only her quest for adventure but also the professor she fell in love with.
He seemed familiar to her, with his unkempt curls, deep-set eyes, and his poor-boy, blue-collar upbringing. He was Martin Eden in the flesh. "I really want to be a writer," he told the class and, then, with a laugh, added, "I already have the drinking part down."