This is a litany of "would've, could've, and should've" by two talented people. After a divorce, an elegant woman seeks the help of a criminal thug to prevent her ex-husband from harassing her. Events escalate to unimaginable consequences. This novel is about a couple, each of whom possessed brilliant skills and potential, who hit snags in their life's journey during the sixties, seventies, and eighties, which detoured them, including prison time but didn't defeat them. This novel, inspired by a mid-Western case, treats many of the issues during the '60s, '70s, and '80s including Vietnam War, abortion, PTSD, women's prison, women's lib, conscription, and Ohio State basketball.