This book centers around Laura, a 40-year-old novelist living in Manhattan. She comes down with chronic fatigue syndrome shortly after her husband, a reporter, is killed while covering a Bronx drug bust. The only constant in her life are her Tai Chi classes. There she learns about flexibility, rooting herself in the earth, and eating air. Disenchanted with Western doctors, Laura visits an herbalist and tries homeopathy and other alternative treatments. Slowly she realizes that a whole new world is opening up for her. Lynne Sharon Schwartz vividly demonstrates how the low energy protagonist comes to see New York, nature, and her relationships all transformed. The illness, it turns out, offers her the keys to a new book and a new kingdom of surprises.