London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend....

A searing memoir of the author's efforts to understand her late mother's life and murder describes the traumatic loss of her mother in childhood, the 12-year manhunt for the killer and the author's investigations into her mother's past in the dark corners of a small Maine community.