The Helios Disaster is a contemporary mythical tale in which a father gives birth to a twelve-year-old girl, splitting his head open in the process. Father and daughter are separated. The girl is placed into foster care and comes under the spell of the Pentecostal movement. When she starts speaking in tongues, she's admitted to a psychiatric ward. All the time, she longs to meet her father and eventually they run away together. The author's passionate involvement with her protagonist illuminates what it is like to slide irresistibly away from reality.