The Bronx, 1953. Leonora and Floria are sisters-in-law and friends, dancing with each other, laughing with each other, arguing with each other. But when Floria's daughter dies in a terrible accident involving Leonora's son, Anthony, family ties are put to the ultimate test. Floria struggles to find a way through her grief, gaining solace in isolation; Leonora faces the world afresh, a single woman, mother to a son whose burden of guilt weights heavy. With warmth, humour and consummate storytelling, Hegi follows the family through the last half of the twentieth century as they try to find meaning in tragedy, finding, instead, their own paths to redemption.