For decades, former special-education teacher Torey Hayden has been a light in the darkness for severely troubled children. She has chronicled her breakthroughs in a series of internationally bestselling books, including the powerful and poignant One Child and The Tiger's Child. But it wasn't until she left the classroom that she faced three of her most extraordinary challenges.

While working in the children's psychiatric ward of a large hospital, Torey was introduced to seven-year-old Cassandra, achild who had been kidnapped by her father and was found dirty, starving and picking through rubbish bins to survive. She refused to speak, so Torey could only imagine what she had been through. Drake, by contrast, was a charismatic four-year-old who managed to participate fully in his pre-school class without uttering a single word. Last, there was Gerda, eighty-two, who had suffered a massive stroke and was unwilling to engage in conversation with anyone. Although Torey had never worked with adults, she agreed to help when all other efforts had failed.