Rose McKillop’s virtuous life as mother and homemaker, and her seventeen-year marriage, are safe haven from her outlandish family: sexually-unfettered sister, Justine, a freelance writer; brother, James, in trouble with money, prostitutes and the law; and elderly grandmother, Marlene Burich, who raised the siblings after their parents’ murders three decades ago. Marlene’s radical ideology has estranged her from Rose for twenty years.

The bitter truth is that Rose’s life is a tragic fraud. Disconnected from her husband, sexually dissatisfied, and spiritually empty, despite her religious façade, she harbors a secret that could end her marriage. In pain and desperation, she reaches out to another man, risking all in a sexual affair.

The siblings are abruptly reunited by a series of catastrophic events, including Marlene’s increasingly bizarre behavior, and a brutal double-murder. In the process, Rose isn't the only family member whose dirty secrets threaten to destroy the ties that bind

Madeline Benit‚s is a realist, unaffected by the power of destiny, a skeptic who firmly believes in free will. Fed up with the man in her life, Jake Keene, when he becomes engaged to marry another woman, Maddie feels a need for distance to salvage her sanity.

On a road trip, she meets Wyatt McLain, a glaringly honest man, whose compelling past is part of his charm. A true believer in fate, Wyatt is convinced he and Maddie have been put together for a preordained purpose. But the future is thrown into chaos when Maddie discovers she is pregnant, and doesn't know with certainty if the father is Jake or Wyatt. When her life seems headed toward disaster, Maddie must decide whether to allow fate or free will to determine the outcome.