Fraught with grief over the loss of her lover and shaken by the discovery of a twin sister hovering near death, Sharle is forced to confront the shadows of her past. Drawn back to a hard summer when she was eleven, she relives the monthly trials and revelations that shaped her over an arduous and tender year of her life. She discovers new friends and family kept hidden from her and learns through hard-fought decisions, the secrets, betrayals, and truths too heavy for a child to bear.  Then, finally, when she tries to make one last effort to show her mother how much she cares, she finds out just how much her parents really think of her.

As each memory unfolds, her path becomes clearer: a year of turmoil and discovery that would drive her, at twelve, to strike out on her own.