FROM THE PUBLISHER

A simple photograph of a young woman opens a floodgate of memories that will have the power to destroy a family in this compelling contemporary novel that examines the complex dynamics of a marriage.

Allen and Gayle Bowen are enjoying a rejuvenating new phase in their long, comfortable relationship. The retired school teachers have moved to a small town in northern California, where Allen has opened a small camera shop and Gayle finally has the time to nurture a garden. But while Allen cheerfully runs his business and gets to know the people in the community, his mind is elsewhere, savoring with longing the reminiscences of his many secret love affairs, which he conducted throughout his years with Gayle.

When the couple receives a routinely chatty letter from their grown daughter, Molly. they don't know that their complacent lives are about to shatter. Molly has innocently enclosed a picture of her new roommate and friend, Alanis. Allen is unprepared for his strong reaction to the photograph, and must hide from his wife the powerful emotions the image of this girl stirs in him, for Alanis bears a striking resemblance to a woman with whom he enjoyed a brief, but intensely passionate sexual liaison decades before.

When Alanis accompanies Molly on a weekend visit to her parents' home, her presence becomes a catalyst for a series of explosive revelations that will lay bare dark family secrets and force Allen to acknowledge the terrible legacy of his past actions.