Elisha Cooper spends his morn­ings creating children's books and his afternoons playing with his two daughters. But when he discovers a lump in five-year-old Zoë's midsection as she sits on his lap at a Chicago Cubs game, everything changes. Surgery, sleepless nights, months of treatment, a drumbeat of worry. Even as the family moves to New York and Zoë starts kindergarten, they must navigate a new normal: school and soccer and hot chocolate at the local café, inter­rupted by anxious visits to the hospital. Elisha and his wife strive to help their daughters maintain a sense of stability and joy in their family life. And he tries to understand this new world-how it changes art and language and laughter-as he holds on to the protective love he feels for his child.

With the observant eye of an artist and a remarkable sense of humor, Elisha captures his family's journey through a perilous time and, in the process, shows how we are all transformed by the fear and hope we feel for those we love