Here is a brief synopsis, written by the author

The story - Annie has a miserable childhood. She patiently waits to grow up and constructs an imaginary world of how things should be in the future.

She goes about creating such a world for herself and almost succeeds.
Things go horribly wrong when her adopted daughter develops symptoms of Reactive Attachment Disorder.
In spite of her best efforts, Annie's carefully created world is relentlessly destroyed.

A feature of RAD is that the child's behavior is so cunning and manipulative that, to the outsider, the mother is always the one at fault.

Annie loses the sympathy of everyone around her and eventually, having lost her husband, her child and her home, she reaches a personal Armageddon that makes her decide to assert her identity and take charge of her life.

As she gains insight and understanding about the disorder, she eventually sees that identity is not about 'props' but about accepting herself as she is and accepting Bethany for who she is.

From being, on the surface, a victim she emerges as a person of integrity. She accepts the fact that she can love but not like and that no one person could meet Bethany's extensive needs.

The book is in three parts:

Part 1 - Spring 1990 - begins with the hopes and fears of the early days, from just before the point of adoption up to nursery age

Part 2 - Summer 1995 - deals with Annie's trials and tribulations at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) when seven-year-old Bethany is testing and subverting her boundaries, showing disturbed and manipulative behavior.

Part 3 - Winter 1999 - deals with the dramatic events that occur when Bethany is in Year 7, aged eleven. This is typically a time when such children become completely out of hand.

Bethany, having driven her parents apart, and accused a teacher of rape, tries to kill her mother. In the aftermath, Annie finally becomes her own person and moves on with hope for the future.