After their mother's death, three estranged sisters return to the family house on Birch Lake to sort through a lifetime of belongings. What begins as an ordinary goodbye changes when they discover a locked cedar chest, fifty years of unsent letters and a photograph with someone carefully cut from the frame.

As Margaret follows the clues their mother left behind, the sisters uncover a hidden love, an impossible choice and the true story of who belongs to whom. A literary family mystery about motherhood, silence, sacrifice and choosing to bring the truth into the light.