Co-author John Busby was a Falmouth, MA police officer when, in the late summer of 1979, he was shot in the face from a passing car. The shooting was likely intended to prevent him from testifying against James Meyer, who Busby had arrested for assault and endangering the life of a police officer. Meyer is the brother of Raymond Meyer, a notorious crime figure in the town of Falmouth. Busby barely survives the shooting, but most of his jaw is missing, and he endures years of therapy and reconstructive surgery to regain a semblance of a normal life.

Busby faces a gauntlet of medical procedures, the isolation of home recovery, and the virtual imprisonment of his family as a police detail watches over them 24 hours a day. Perhaps most daunting, however, is John’s struggle with his own anger. While he is certain that Raymond Meyer ordered the hit against him, the investigators drag their heels until it seems that Meyer will never be indicted (or even questioned). Rage consumes John until he begins to plot revenge, even working out the logistical details of an assassination attempt. In the end, however, John realizes the damage his anger is doing to him and his family, and he moves past it and finds peace.