What has changed in the last 20 years - economically, culturally, psychologically, emotionally for men and women? What choices do we now face at different phases of life? Is our second adulthood a time of loss or a time of gain? Can we conquer our fear of ageing and see it as a time of mastery, consolidation and awakening? Or will we refuse to open ourselves to change, and be defeated by our own stagnation? How do people overcome the predictable crisis? What are they, and how do they differ for men and women? The book examines and attempts to answer all these questions.