Thea has led an oddly sheltered life, growing up as a virtual prisoner of her mother's obsessive love. When, at age seventeen, she escapes to marry a suave and mysterious friend of her father's, she soon finds herself living on a remote island, and the house in which she grew up-with its gates and padlocks and dogs-is supplanted by a prison of a different kind. At the heart of this exquisite, stark, and riveting tale of passion is the story of a mother and daughter-the secrets they share and the secrets they keep-and the story of a bond that cannot be broken, even in death.