An intricately plotted debut about love, obsession, and the destruction of a family from the inside out It's 1999 in White Hill, Michigan, and Lydia Carroll's husband is in love with a dead woman. English Professor Frank Carroll has invested years searching for the lost works of local poet Mary Stone Walker, whose mysterious disappearance in 1939 is only rivaled by the beautiful words she left behind. When Frank's single-minded pursuit for Mary's lost poems puts his family in jeopardy, Lydia throws herself into the mystery, hoping to solve it and bring peace back to her home. But as Lydia begins investigating, her son takes action with a plan of his own.one that will bring the family to a breaking point and change Lydia's destiny forever.