"Back then, there were no support groups, no Cancer for Dummies, and in her grief and anger, she whisked me off to those anti-nuke rallies where people shouted themselves hoarse about the end of the world."

In search of her father's killer, author Ceiridwen Terrill sets out on foot for the atomic frontier, the birthplace of plutonium in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, she encounters people, animals, and landscapes forever changed by that secret factory in the desert. Terrill's own family uprooted themselves from Oklahoma to become part of the plucky and hopeful lot who carried on the plutonium mission after WWII. As a Cold War daughter, she discovers that when you go searching for truths, you can't keep only the ones you like-you have to keep them all.