Two women are separated by fifty years and one dark American secret.

In 1938, aspiring artist Emma Lundgren is hired to paint a mural at a German American youth camp bordering her rural Connecticut home. Seeking a chance to practice her craft, she soon befriends a mistreated young boy inside who doesn’t seem to fit the “ideals” the camp demands. With every stroke of her brush, Emma uncovers a chilling devotion to the Third Reich, risking everything to bring attention to the Nazi agenda rooting itself in American soil.

More than half a century later, celebrated chef Lily Milan is picking up the pieces of her fractured life when a shocking revelation threatens to upend everything she knows: Her entire identity is a lie, built on a mysterious adoption. Her quest for answers leads her to Emma—the grandmother who has spent decades searching for her.

As past and present collide, Lily becomes the key to unearthing a sinister history. Together, they face the enduring echoes of fanaticism, proving that even the longest shadows of trauma can be shattered by the resilient power of love. 

Jacqueline Sheehan, psychologist and New York Times bestselling author, is a New Englander through and through, though she spent twenty adventuresome years in Oregon, California, and New Mexico exploring house painting, photography, journalism, and directing a traveling troupe of high school puppeteers before returning to the East Coast. Her six previous novels: "The Comet’s Tale," "Lost & Found," "Now & Then," "Picture This," "The Center of the World," and "The Tiger in the House" have sold widely and are translated into eight languages. She has been supported by fellowships at Hawthornden Castle, MacDowell, and Jentel. She teaches writing through Writers in Progress in Massachusetts and leads international writing retreats in Guatemala.