Castellucci's father, Vincent F Castellucci, is a neuroscientist who is one of the world's leading experts on the formation of memories. Cecil's memoirs alternate between her recollections of her childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and present-day kitchen-table conversations with her father about the malleable nature of memory, and the involuntary confabulation that we all engage in whenever we recall our pasts. These scientific discourses dovetail into philosophical inquiries about the nature of experience -- why do some experiences excite our interest and thus turn into our formative and favored memories?