All her life Ellie Enderlin had been known as Lila's sister--until the day Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered, and the shape of their family changed forever. Twenty years later, Ellie is a professional coffee buyer who has never put down roots. When, in a chance meeting, she comes into possession of the notebook that Lila carried everywhere, Ellie returns home to finally discover the truth about her sister's death--a search that will lead her to Lila's secret lover, to the motives and fate of a man who profited from their family's grief, and ultimately to the deepest secrets...

Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach in San Francisco, Abby Mason - fiance, soon-to-be-stepmother - looks away from six-year-old Emma for an instant. By the time she looks back, Emma has disappeared. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a mother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead."