Walking through new-fallen snow in the forest near their home, twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon and her father come upon something inconceivable: there, in the pristine winter scene, an abandoned infant wails, its survival made possible only by the coincidence of their having chosen this path for their evening stroll.In the days and weeks that follow, Nicky learns about corners of the adult world that she never dreamed existed, and, for the first time, she asks questions about her lifes strange shape. Why has her father moved them to this isolated corner of the country? What is his responsibility for the tragedy that led them here? How can she confront the chasm between his needs and her own growing sense of the world? Then everything is thrown into stark relief by the arrival of a young woman haunted by her own terrible choices.With the glorious prose and emotional power that have won readers all over the world, Anita Shreve delivers her deepest and most powerful novel yet.