The book takes readers "behind the scenes" at four different wildlife rehabilitation centers, where animals are nursed back to health and released back into the wild when possible. Includes "For Creative Minds" educational section.

A baby great horned owl, Second, so called because his sister, First, is already out of the nest, is reluctant to hunt for himself, but when his mother is injured he is forced out into the forest; Maureen is a human girl pulled out of her grandmother's violent home and placed with an aunt--but her Aunt Beatrice is involved in falconry and runs a mews where injured raptors can heal, and it is here Maureen and Second (now called Rufus) meet and learn...

The author discusses how she discovered two loves at once--a caring man she met in a dog park, and the raptor-rehabilitation center he introduced her to--and how caring for birds changed her mind about having children.