The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter is first and foremost a book about mothers and daughters. In the early '90s, the devoutly Catholic Jane is drawn into the pro-life movement and ends up adopting a fourth child, a little girl who struggles to form a bond with her new family. Meanwhile, Jane's eldest daughter begins to pull away from her mother, forging a new path for herself in high school that echoes her mother's more than she could possibly realise.