Writer Kurson tells the true story of one man's heroic odyssey from blindness into sight. Blinded at age three, Mike May defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May's vision. He began to contemplate an astonishing new world. Would music still sound the same? Would sex be different? Would he still be Mike May? The procedure was filled with risks. Even if it worked, fewer than twenty cases were known worldwide in which a person gained vision after a lifetime of blindness, and each of them suffered desperate consequences. There were countless reasons for May to pass. He could think of only a single reason to go forward: he knew it would change his life.