From one of America's best loved and most prolific novelists: the story of a woman coming to terms with the violent death of her mother, and uncovering all the hidden secrets stowed away over the years. When her mother uncharacteristically fails to return her phone calls, 31-year-old Nikki Eaton calls in to check up on her. She finds the house turned upside-down, and her mother lying dead, murdered, on the garage floor. Single, sexually liberated and economically self-supporting, Nikki has never particularly thought of herself as a daughter. She learns to cope with the unexpected loss of her mother over the course of a tumultuous year of mourning that brings sorrow, and even, from an unexpected source, a nurturing love. This is a candid, engaging and personal novel about mothers and daughters from one of the greatest American novelists alive today.