Michael's smile broadened. It seems like you're surprised to see me, Jean. Don't tell me you thought that they'd leave an eleven-year-old boy locked away forever. Twenty-nine years after the tragic death of her childhood best friend, Hope, Jean Cartwright Rhodes returns to her hometown with her husband and daughter after she inherits the house her friend's family once lived in. Now, years later, she finds herself haunted by a dark truth and by the specter of Hope herself. Every time Jean looks through her kitchen window, she sees two stark reminders of her troubled past; the Afta-U sailboat, ironically named after young Hope, and the old oak tree where her eleven-year-old friend met her death at the hands of another child. Afta-U unfolds as a psychological chess match, a complex web of intrigue, unexpected relationships, lies, and devastating secrets as Jean struggles with the impact of decisions she made long ago on all the lives around her. When Jean confronts and tries to come to grips with Hope's killer, she finds herself waging a personal battle between madness and redemption."