Nell and her partner Adrienne are about to have a baby. For Adrienne, parenthood is the start of a new life. For Nell, it’s the reason the two of them are sitting in a therapist’s office. Because she can’t go into this without facing the painful truth: that she has been a mother before.

For Dolores, Nell’s mother, the news also brings a reckoning: with the way her daughter’s life unfolded fifteen years ago, with its inextricable ties to her own past, and with the tragedy that neither of them have spoken about since . . .