After highlighting a Baltimore childhood as a doctor's daughter and education in Catholic schools, the book describes the early years of Charlotte Fedders' marriage as her husband's legal career and social status flourished. At home, however, the successful lawyer physically and emotionally abused his wife and growing family. Fedders became moody and critical, obsessed with order and discipline. The account illustrates the classic battered wife syndrome with its cycle of abuse, regret, and reconciliation. Financial and career problems that arose after Fedders was appointed to the SEC position exacerbated the strained marriage, and in 1985 Charlotte Fedders asked for a divorce. When the violence became public, Fedders resigned his SEC post. The account shows how even an educated, middle-class woman can become mired in a pattern of abuse for years and why it requires extraordinary courage to break the battered woman syndrome and start a new life. Photographs. (Publisher abstract modified)