A young woman's life is transformed by an event from her teenage years, as chronicled in her memoir. Born in 1950, she grew up in a working-class Connecticut neighborhood, where her father was a good-hearted cop and her mother was a nervous worrier. She was intelligent, ambitious, and dreamed of attending college in New York and becoming a writer. However, she also developed an early interest in boys, and at 15, she fell deeply in love with a high school classmate.

Riding in Cars with Boys
In 1965, a determined single mother navigates the challenges of single parenthood, pursuing her passion for writing while supporting her teenage daughter and dealing with a husband struggling with addiction.