When Natalie Merin's grandmother dies, she discovers that her birth mother, Colleen Winters, disappeared from a small Oregon town twenty years earlier.

Natalie travels to Oregon hoping to find out what happened to her mother. Instead, she finds people who won't talk about Colleen, who act like she never existed, or if she did, their life was better without her. She learns that several prominent people in town will do anything to protect what they feel is important to keep hidden.

Soon, Natalie uncovers her mother's romance with a Mexican immigrant who was murdered thirty years earlier. Her mother's lies after the murder caused the town to crucify her. The more Natalie probes into her mother's life, the harder the town tries to stop her, until finally she comes up against a killer who will do anything to protect their secrets, including killing again, and Natalie must decide if finding out what happened is worth her life or the lives of the people she's come to care about.