Hoffman kept a journal on daily visits to an uninhabited island in the Nashua River in Pepperell, Massachusetts at the same time as her mother was traveling all over the world in her struggle with cancer. A portrait emerges of both mother and daughter from their early experiences together in New Guinea to Hoffman's return in 1998 to the Trobriands with her mother's ashes. The book traces in distilled language the interwoven journey of their lives together. Through word and image Hoffman travels to the Trobriand Islands in New Guinea where she lived when she was fifteen and then returned to New Guinea in 1998 with her ashes.