One winter morning James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo--the woman he has always known as "Tante"--lying dead in the woods outside his cabin, clad only in a flowered nightgown. With this arresting scene, Elizabeth Inness-Brown ushers readers into her mysterious and lyrical narrative, the story of two closely braided lives that forces a reconsideration of our notions of maternity, loyalty, love, and perhaps death itself.

As James Jack sets out to fulfill Marguerite's unusual last wishes, the narrative unveils the secrets of their pasts. It arcs from Depression-era...