George Donner felt that he had arranged the perfect life for himself. Marrying his childhood sweetheart, fathering a bright and attractive son, and taking care of his little family in the suburbs were, he believed, the right things to do. But when he finally discovers that "the right thing isn't always the best thing," his wife is dead, his son, Martin, is middle-aged, and George himself, at seventy-two, is recuperating from his second stroke in Mountain...