These lyrical-narrative poems explore the ties that bind us, in families and in pairs. The book opens by naming its first direction: "So this is how we grew afraid." The past is seen through the eyes of two brothers who manage, through love for each other, to survive their family's violence and confusion. With devastating insight, Ramspeck explores the powerful and fraught bond between fathers and sons. Another thread of poems limns the beautiful and abiding love of the speaker's marriage, providing contrast to the turbulent relationships of childhood. The reader ultimately rises with the speaker through the painful past to embrace a faith in love itself, our only real survival.