Indie Brown and her sensitive and steadfast partner, Peter, have escaped Indie's terrible past, moving far away from her parents to a happy life in the backwoods of Maine. But one autumn evening, a late-night phone call from her younger sister sends Indie reeling back into the chaos of her troubled family and she reluctantly returns to her home in the mountains of Arizona. From her mother's disturbing relationship with her sister, to the death of her brother, Indie is forced to re-evaluate the relationships she has with all the members of her family, and with Peter too.

Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, the rare and horrific mental disorder that causes afflicted mothers to make their own children ill, is hauntingly brought to life in lyrical prose in this tragic and beautiful novel.