Tig Costello has arrived in Darren, Kentucky, commissioned to paint a portrait honoring her grandfather Benjamin. His contributions to the rural Appalachian town and his unimpeachable war service have made him a local hero. But to Tig, he's a relative stranger. To find out more about him, Tig wants to talk to the person who knew her grandfather best: Eloise Price, the woman who murdered him fifty years ago.

Still confined to a state institution, Eloise has a lifetime of stories to tell. She agrees to share them all--about herself, about Tig's enigmatic grandmother, and about the other brave and desperate women who passed through Benjamin's orbit. Most revealing of all is the truth about Whitmore Halls, the mansion on the hill that was home to triage, rescue, death, and one inevitable day that changed Eloise's life forever.

As Tig begins to piece together the puzzle of her mysterious family tree, it sends her spiraling toward a confrontation with her own painful past--and a reconciliation with all its heartrending secrets.