"Compulsively readable and deeply heartfelt..." -- David M. Carew, author Ava Skinner's idyllic life is about to unravel. A professional pianist, Ava lives with her husband, Langdon, in their multi-million dollar, Naples, Florida, Gulf Shore Drive mansion. Then the symptoms begin. Looking for answers, Ava takes a trip to her childhood home, St. Joseph's Orphanage, and discovers a letter from her biological mother that lays open the tragic family legacy. Wrestling with a world that is collapsing around her, and frantic to conceal her worsening condition from her husband, Ava flees to Venezuela. In Maracaibo, Ava meets Mariella, wife of Ava's terminally-ill cousin. Poverty-stricken Mariela, who lives in a one-room shack in an alley, has surrendered everything in the name of love. As she spirals towards her fate, Ava becomes intimate with the obstacles and challenges once endured by members of her own family. Yet even in the wake of her deception and extreme sacrifice, courage wins out, love endures, and hope remains.