In February 1991, Elliot Gilbert, a 60-year-old professor of English, went into hospital for a routine prostate operation. Hours later, he was pronounced dead in the recovery ward. In this book, Gilbert's widow describes the shock and grief into which she and her children were plunged as they struggled to come to terms with his death. Her major focus is on the process of discovery through which they began to unravel the mystery of her husband's sudden death.