Mabel Sherwood, a happy, confident, fun-loving teenager, leads a close-to-perfect life with her wonderful adoptive family and her godmother, Polly Clairvaux, whom she affectionately calls "Aunt Polly." Polly Clairvaux, a gentle, faithful, tenderhearted young woman with an intriguing career in science, lives a contented, fulfilling life with the man she loves and the family of her goddaughter in the quiet, close-knit town of Claybar Heights. But two heart-wrenching tragedies strike the lives of both women within five years of each other, taking away everything that gives them reason to draw their next breath. Amidst the anguish of their hearts, their stories intertwine in a poignant, suspenseful tale of grief and loss, joy and compassion, regret and atonement, friendship and self-sacrifice, the sweetness and fragility of human life, the loneliness and isolation of harboring a burdensome secret, and-ultimately-undying love that triumphs over everything.