The other Shepards died nearly twenty years ago, but eighth grader Holland Shepard and her younger sister, Geneva, are shadowed by other people's memories of their two brothers and sister. The enormity of their family's loss has limited the scope of the girls' own identity; "Whatever else we are", Holland reflects, "has been swallowed up by our haunting".
Then Annie the painter arrives. She steps easily into their Greenwich Village home and, with insouciant charm, widens the sisters' perspective of themselves, their city, and the tragedy that has preceded them. It is Annie who gives them the courage to embark on a journey to make peace with their past, and to redefine themselves outside of grief and memories. But who is Annie, really, and why has she come to help them?