"You don't know my sister. I've been thinking about how tough she is. She's tougher than I'll ever be . . ."

After Theresa Cole finds out she's pregnant with a child likely to be born with a genetic abnormality, an infant she and her husband Charlie had eagerly anticipated, she considers having an abortion. When she subsequently disappears from her family's Minnesota farm, her sister Annie tries to figure out why. No one else seems concerned at first, except Charlie, who's stationed in Afghanistan, and Charlie's father, Woodrow, who drives an eyebrow-raising pickup all the way from Alabama to search for his son's missing wife. Claire, another sister, becomes alarmed too and agrees to help. But Theresa's mother Maureen, a deeply religious woman, takes a stand against them, determined to save Theresa and her baby both, no matter the costs to herself or anyone else.

Theresa et al. surveys America's battlefield on abortion from many points of view, exploring how a woman's choices—or lack thereof—pierce the fabric of family life, impacting not only those closest to her, but spreading out in tremors that have a ripple effect on the communities that surround her.

Jean Hackel lives with her husband in St. Paul, Minnesota.