What began as a simple poem for a young girl, a letter to the author's granddaughter, introducing her to several generations of the women in her family (all the mothers of mothers whose remarkable lives and loving acts of courage had made possible her opportunity to walk this earth) blossomed into a feminist manifesto. Photos going back 6 generations help to make these women's stories real, and inspire this little girl - and the reader - to meet the challenges of her own lifetime - to write the unique chapter only she can add to the story of her family, and of all the women throughout history to whom she is linked by the gentle, resilient, timeless nobility of "The Silken Cord".