For more than 20 years, Ella has learned to live without her mother,
Maggie, who disappeared into a fog of mental illness when Ella turned
10. Despite this trauma, Ella has forged ahead, becoming a veterinarian,
getting married, and most of all, developing a deep, trusting bond with
her father, John, a ferry captain in Seattle.
Ella's contented life is shattered when her father is hit by a car and
killed. Going through his papers, she learns that her father maintained
a secret relationship with her mother. The unsettling questions raised
by her father's death and her mother's unexpected reappearance sends
Ella on a journey to discover the truth about the woman who abandoned
her and the man who raised her, a journey that threatens her marriage,
her unborn child, and ultimately, her sanity.