Amanda, feeling the strain after caring for wounded soldiers in World War I, retreats to her family's farm on a lake in rural Wisconsin, hoping that life with her beloved sister Mattie and her three-year-old niece Ruth will restore her. But very soon Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge as she has carried her troubles with her. Months later, Mattie's husband Carl returns from the war to find his wife mysteriously drowned and his daughter being raised by his prickly and possessive sister-in-law. What happened the night Mattie died? The truth, when finally revealed, is both dramatic and extraordinarily moving.
