The fragile shell holding together Peggy’s successful yet troubled life shatters when her husband announces he is leaving. Suddenly aware she is repeating toxic behaviors she saw modeled long ago, Peggy turns to reckon with the dark mirror of the dysfunctional family she’d fled.

Strong Glass takes readers on her journey into memory as she pieces together her lineage and its legacy. Her 1950s childhood comes alive on the page, interwoven with travels through her parents’ formative years during the Great Depression and World War II. The intergenerational family business—specializing in stained glass creation and mirror restoration—in the rural western Maryland village of Cresaptown forms the backdrop.

Peggy learns that for many with an inherited history of trauma, gazing into the mirror of the past offers the healing grace of insight. This poignant narrative of damage and renewal begins with a single shock of illumination and ends in empathy, compassion, and absolution.