Professor, wife, and mother, Joanna Reed is a survivor. She hones her body exploring the deep, jagged caves beneath the earth, and hones her mind writing the poetry for which she is acclaimed. But on Asconsett Island, the peaceful Massachusetts coastal town where she and her family spend their summers, her world is suddenly, brutally ripped from its moorings. Her husband, an accomplished sailor, drowns in a bizarre boating mishap, his body found without the life jacket he always wore. Then her father burns to death in a terrible blaze. Both apparent accidents, both shattering Joanna's life and forcing her into a duel with grief and an outside world that refuses to believe there is a more malevolent design behind the two deaths. Now Joanna has just been rocked by the cruelest, most incomprehensible tragedy of all. In her rage and desperation, she lets someone into her life. Charis is young, beautiful, confident - and seemingly untouched by violence. She offers companionship, understanding, and a loving friendship that slowly brings Joanna back from the abyss. But it is no accident that Charis has come now...