Cathy and John married 20 years ago. Over the years, angry fights developed, followed by verbal and gestured threats of violence, followed by actual physical attacks and injuries. Eventually, Cathy left, and John stalked her. Cathy and John are one couple that Browne-Miller introduces us to in this book that looks at the increasingly publicized incidence of "intimate partner violence," abuse that takes place behind closed doors inside marriages and other "loving" relationships. Only a fraction of this abuse is ever reported, so just a fragment of the problem is reflected in national statistics that show nearly 2 million injuries and some 1,300 deaths annually caused by this so-called Intimate Partner Violence. In this work, Browne-Miller uses vignettes, as well as standing and emerging research, to demonstrate the difference between a relationship undergoing normal stressors, and one that is abusive, or perhaps even deadly.