The boundaries of family life are upended in this memoir, which turns on the author’s lifelong relationship with his enthralling yet deeply possessive aunt, a powerhouse Hollywood screenwriter whose turbulent nature slowly reveals itself.

All his life Michael Frank has been fawned over by his aunt, who was a Hollywood screenwriter in the 1970s. She loves him more than life itself. At first, when he is a young boy, this is a very good thing. He takes refuge in her adoration and attention. But soon things turn bad and her hold on the entire family begins to spiral out of control in increasingly unpredictable and volatile ways.