Abandoned by her mother as a child, Brigid Foster struggles with conflicted feelings when her mother reenters her life, while her summer lodger, Louise, also gives way to a painful past, with unexpected repercussions.

When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, the people of the small South Carolina town that bears the river's name are thrown into the national spotlight. The girl's parents want to attempt a rescue of the body; environmentalists are convinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old...