Han­nah Web­ber fears she will nev­er be a moth­er, but when she gives birth to a son, her prayers are answered and she names him Samuel. In an era of high-stakes par­ent­ing, nur­tur­ing Sam’s spir­it and intel­lect becomes Hannah’s life pur­pose. She invests body and soul into his devel­op­ment, much to the detri­ment of her mar­riage. She con­vinces her­self, how­ev­er, that Sam’s accep­tance at age four­teen to a most pres­ti­gious New Eng­land edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion, over­seen by an illus­tri­ous head­mas­ter, jus­ti­fies her choic­es.

When he arrives at Dun­ning, Sam is glad to be out from under his mother’s close watch. And he enjoys his new­found free­dom — until, late one night, he stum­bles upon evi­dence of sex­u­al mis­con­duct at the school and is unable to shake the dis­cov­ery.

Both a com­ing-of-age nov­el and a por­trait of an evolv­ing moth­er-son rela­tion­ship, The Nine, is a mod­ern day allu­sion to the Han­nah sto­ry from the Book of Samuel. It is a tale of mater­nal sac­ri­fice and ulti­mate­ly, rec­on­cil­i­a­tion around let­ting go of a child and redefin­ing one’s role.