The author explains that in 1996, she was a professor and researcher at Harvard Medical school when a major hemorrhage caused a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain . This catastrophic event caused her to lose many neurological functions, including her ability to talk, read, write, and even walk. Taylor’s book is a chronological documentation of her experience that shares her own individual journey as well as a broader scientific perspective on her experience. She is grateful that she fully recovered from her ordeal and dedicates her work to the 700,000 people in America who will experience a stroke in the coming year. Taylor describes her work as encompassing four parts: her pre-stroke life as a neuroscientist, the onset of her stroke, her journey of physical and psychological recovery, and lastly, what she learned about her own brain through her experience of stroke and healing.

Jill Bolte Taylor grew up in Indiana with older brothers, one of whom demonstrated signs of psychosis as a young man and was diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adult. During her childhood, Taylor observed significant personality differences between herself and her brother. She was particularly struck by how they could interpret the same events differently.