Kitty hadn't wanted to go to the funeral and she hadn't anticipated the way it made her review the past. In particular, it made her think about the baby she'd been forced to give away for adoption. She'd called her Madeline and thought of her every day. Now reminded of the cruel brevity of life, she needed to see her -- just to ensure she'd done the right thing. Life had gone well for Kitty -- a secure marriage, two teenage children, a house on the Cornish coast -- yet the hole left by her first baby hadn't lessened. Determined to make the first, tentative steps towards filling it, she and all her family were quite unprepared for the upheaval that followed.