As a student, Hunt found the terminology and studies on fear to be inadequate and she set out to conduct her own research, motivated by the belief that “fear was the most pernicious force within the human psyche.” She began her work with war veterans at a VA hospital, and later worked with Iraqi women, whom she trained to look after Baghdad’s orphaned and war-shocked children. She subsequently plays a major part in facilitating the recovery of the Thornton family, which was nearly destroyed by its traumatic experiences. In the process of unraveling the Thornton case, Debbie Hunt also succeeds in confronting and jettisoning her own past fears. Hunt’s medical credentials lend an authoritative tone to the novel’s exposition and dramatization of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome.