Rachel is nineteen, broke, depressed, and forced to do another TAFE course to keep receiving the dole. Transexual TAFE teacher Stellar senses her apathy and destructive patterns taking Rachel under her wing. Stellar models the power of I-statements, boundary setting and acceptance. Therapist Leona helps her realise she is a fly caught in the sticky web on repeat, lending her tools and techniques to shift beyond her destructive cycles and sharing the mantra: ‘they were doing the best they could with what they knew and believed’.

Both mentors introduce Rachel to the journey of personal-development, empowering her to stand up to her lordly landlady, Maria, ditch her vengeful best friend, Gretchen, and confront her mother on the years of emotional abuse. And the ghost of Havelock Hostel encourages her write her way to a new story.

On her mother’s deathbed, Rachel finally applies the mantra which opens a portal to the fifth dimension where unconditional love and forgiveness transpires between them. With her newfound affirmation for life, doors of opportunity open for work, relationships and friendships. Rachel is free to let go of the past thus rendering her free to find true love, beginning of course, with herself.

Shortly after her mother’s death, you, the reader, discover the twist in the novel – that the ones we need the most are often closer than we think.