Serious social issues, for example the failure of the social service system, the police, the schools and the legal system to help children in distress, dominate this novel.

Wilhelm uses Leeann, the children's mother, to expose the state of social welfare and the foster care system, pointing to a widespread problem in the United States. Wilhelm is sensitive to the dangers of social services for orphaned and abandoned children; she is also aware of an uncaring society and a social climate that allow such situations as the McNair children's to go undetected.

Moreover, Wilhelm understands family dynamics as she contrasts the orphaned childhood of Liz and Brian with that of William Radix, whose father refuses to understand his talents and wishes and thus pushes him into a career Will dislikes.

Liz's family exhibits a kind of pathology in which the children feel compelled to act idiosyncratically...