In this darkly funny and poignant memoir of love and addiction, award-winning author Anna Marrian chronicles her attempts to win the love of her charming, elusive, and boundary-crossing father. With clear-eyed honesty, she takes us from preteen transgressions in a New England boarding school to breaking father-daughter taboos in the heart of Africa to the grip of her heroin addiction in a squalid London squat with a ne'er-do-well lover, illuminating the power—and limitations—of family ties and the strength it takes for one woman to finally break free of those bonds.