On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life.
The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter, 1999. Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid at Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide.
Ghosts awaken, and memories, long-consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge; something history has forgotten, but Grace never could.