Caroline and Daniel are twins whose mother died when they were babies. They grow up in a conventional family, their aunt and uncle raising them along with their own little girls, but they are truly close only to each other. Then, their father remarrying, they're separated for the first time and sent to boarding school. A serious accident when they become medical students seems to end without damage to either, but soon after Daniel and Caroline cut themselves off from the rest of the family, causing first bewilderment, then hurt and anger. Underneath the stable family life their grandparents worked so hard to establish, run currents of insecurity and restlessness, and a secret only one person is able to uncover. The novel explores belonging and not belonging, guilt and atonement.

Frances is doing fine; she has her life sorted. Then comes the phone call from Alec, the husband who left her for her younger sister Susan, thirteen years ago. Susan has disappeared, and Alec wants her daughter Kate to come and stay with Frances, out of harm's way. Meanwhile, Frances's youngest sister, Gillian, finds that two months after ending her relationship with a married man, she is pregnant. While all this is going on another crisis is looming. It's been a family full of secrets. Frances and Gillian haven't even managed to tell their parents Susan is missing. After all, she's left unacknowledged thirteen years of birthday and Christmas presents for Kate, the granddaughter they never saw. She was the one who made sure she could never be forgiven, and now there's another secret. It's not always the things you fear most, which matter in the end.