Growing up in working class Boston in an Italian American family, Anna's childhood was sparse but comfortable. Anna and her sisters are devoted to their mother, and when their father gets a new job outside the city, the family is tossed into a middle-class suburban existence. Anna's mother is suddenly adrift, and the darkness lurking inside her expands. Her daughters, trapped with her in the new house, must do everything they can to keep her from unravelling. A story about sisterhood, the complications of class, and the chains of inheritance between mothers and daughters.