Sculptor and child abuse survivor Dr. Michael C. Irving embarks on a nineteen year odyssey in creating a massive memorial to acknowledge and honor victims of a horrific war that is played out on children every day and every night in every city and every town in North America. For over a decade hundreds of child abuse survivors and thousands of children are swept up in Dr. Irving's vision and find a voice for their wounded hearts and souls to speak about the unspeakable. Casts of their hands and HandPrint messages have found a home in the quilt squares of an 11 by 30 foot, 4000 pound bronze monument.

By twist of fate the tragedies and perils of child abuse are time and again replayed in Dr. Irving's epic struggle to complete this monumental work. Dr. Irving's skills as a businessman, artist, psychotherapist, salesman, teacher, workshop leader and media personality inevitably assist him to overcome adversity and rise victoriously out of the ashes.

After nine years of work Dr. Irving finally has funds to finish one of two mammoth monument figures only to discover that nearly a decade's work and its HandPrints have been destroyed by an American foundry though the inferior production. Does this destroy him or does he come back and rebuild the sculpture all over again with the support of a wife who has come to loath the sacrifices this art work repeatedly rips from her family?

How is it that three fundraisers attaching themselves to the project have total mental breakdown? Why does more than a million and a half dollars that is promised to this incredibly valuable work never materialize? What does Dr. Irving make of the threats and broken windows following talk show interviews on his Child Abuse Memorial?

Survivors of child abuse are transformed and experience healing in participating in creating the monument and in simply coming into contact with it. An extended family in which one child was raped by murderer Paul Bernardo asks to spend an evening in the monument studio - at the monument they experience healing. The family of Maple Leaf Garden's victim Martin Kruze have Dr. Irving, along with two of Martin's brothers take a cast of his hand from the casket in the funeral home. A group of children from a small rural town ravaged by a serial pedophile spend a week in Dr. Irving's home and art studio healing from, and making sense of, their betrayed innocence. HandPrints are contributed to the monument from Vancouver, B.C. to St. Johns Newfoundland and every Province in between. Occasionally Dr. Irving reveals tragedies of his own history of child abuse.

Cancer, a heart attack, repeated near financial ruin and sabotage by victims and perpetrators do not detract Dr. Irving from completing what became instantly recognized in its finished bronze state as art created by Devine inspiration - a modern day masterpiece that will still be recognized as such in a millennium. This story is of the highs and lows of human drama that would not be believable except that it is true.

Another artist and art professor says, "Irving's obsession for his art makes Picasso look normal."