Although it’s her only novel to date set entirely in the present, Belfer still manages to turn it into a historical novel. Hannah Larson and her nine-year-old son Nicky visit her beloved Uncle Christopher, dying of cancer, in a large manor house near Cambridge. Two difficult family problems trouble her, and she hopes an extended stay in England will help her find answers.
One problem is Nicky, a sweet and brilliant child ordinarily, but when frustrated he becomes uncontrollably violent and swears a blue streak. The other problem is her husband Kevin, who she recently discovered is bisexual and has had a long relationship with a man she thought was just his best friend. She loves Kevin, but can she stay with a man who has deceived her since the day they met?
Not long after their arrival at Ashton Hall, Nicky discovers a centuries-old skeleton of a woman in a remote, never-visited part of the house. Soon Hannah becomes deeply involved in probing the story of this woman, who turns out to be Isabella Gresham, born in 1552. Who was she? Why was she abandoned in this room? Did she die of the plague, starvation or what?
Clues are found in financial records, a register of the books family members borrowed from the manor house library and drawings Isabella made during her brief life. Little by little Isabella is revealed. And little by little Hannah makes decisions about what to do with her own life.
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