When Flynn was a child, his mother set fire to their home; she later committed suicide. Now a parent himself, Flynn has carried that fire with him until it threatens to burn down his own house. Confronting his struggle and his failings; his marriage in crisis, Flynn sought answers from his therapist. Alternating literary analysis and philosophy with memoir and the bedtime stories he tells his daughter, Flynn probes his deepest ethical dilemmas while examining how childhood spills into parenthood.