While clearing through her mother's bedroom after her death, Emma comes across a thirty-year-old newspaper clipping that her mother had kept, announcing the arrival of a new baby boy. Realizing that the baby must be the son she gave up for adoption, Emma becomes transfixed by this link to her first-born. But she now has a husband and two teenage children, all of whom know nothing of her past...

Vividly recalling the stigma of her schoolgirl pregnancy and the pain of her separation from the baby, this absorbing and illuminating story follows Emma's search, years later, for Oliver, her adopted son.