In this stunning novel,the acclaimed author of The Plum Tree merges the past and present into a haunting story about the nature of love and loyalty–and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most. Ten years agoIzzy Stone’s mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother’s apparent insanityIzzynow seventeenrefuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parentsemployees at the local museumhave enlisted Izzy’s help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. Thereamid piles of abandoned belongingsIzzy discovers a stack of unopened lettersa decades-old journaland a window into her own past. Clara Cartwrighteighteen years old in 1929is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriageClara’s father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crashhe can no longer afford her care–and Clara is committed to the public asylum. Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginningClara’s story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally illcould something else explain her own mother’s violent act? Piecing together Clara’s fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices–with shocking and unexpected results.