At the first session, he meets Lela Allen, a former army medic, who’s divorcing her army husband because of his inability to manage his own post traumatic syndrome. Though Lela and Beck are attracted to each other, they resist it.
When both their children show symptoms of PTSD, common in kids of sufferers, a lasting relationship between Lela and Beck seems doomed. But fate has other things in mind for them, for their children and for two veterans of war whose experiences are also featured in the book.