For Gloria Hytner, the only good thing about tiring of motherhood is that it stings less to think of herself as a total failure. She has managed to raise a son just intelligent and sensitive enough to become an easy target for the neighborhood bully. David seeks solace from her, but Gloria finds her reserves of empathy running low. Having been bullied her entire life, first by her mother and later by other neighborhood moms who seem to mercilessly flaunt the joy they take in raising their own children, Gloria’s acerbic wit is all she has to offer him in the way of a defense.
Never having planned on becoming a mother, let alone one that stayed at home, she had once been well on her way to becoming a crusading attorney, but a personal tragedy forced her to drop out of law school. Now stuck in a humdrum suburban existence, she struggles to even fantasize about escape until the day David unexpectedly exacts revenge on his bully, giving Gloria the courage to set herself free. Family ties are not broken so much as stretched into something new in Stray Our Pieces.