Evoking the tempo of small-town life and the mysterious marshy countryside all around it, this disturbing novel by the author of such novels as Seventh Heaven draws the reader inside a consuming love affair, its history and the ripples it causes.

In this powerfully moving novel, bestselling novelist Alice Hoffman paints a vivid portrait of the lives of three generations in a family separated by loneliness, hope, and betrayal. Esther the White is the cold matriarch who fled a cruel life in Russia only to rule lovelessly over her own family in an isolated compound on Long Island. Phillip is the son she cannot understand, a man with an overwhelming desire to drown himself in the ocean's inviting waters every summer. Phillip's daughter is barely eighteen and desperate to escape the confines of this isolated world and her grandmother's harsh critiscim. But as Phillip's suicidal urges grow stronger and as outside forces threaten to destroy the family, they must come together to dispel the lifetime of secrets that have kept them apart--or lose everything. This spellbinding novel is a brialliant evocation of the ghosts that haunt all families and a touching testament to the redemptive power of love.