Eva's dad is dead. Her mother isn't, but ought to be, at least according to Aunt Mathilde. Time to move on . . .

Eighteen-year-old Eva, suddenly dragged from Nova Scotia to Montreal, struggles not to be lost in a city where she doesn't speak the language, despite her Acadian heritage. A friendship with English major Alma creates new possibilities but also introduces her to the world of hard-partying students as the unrest of the Maple Spring unfolds.

Mathilde, who's cared for Eva since she was six, pays the bills teaching art to children she despises and spending her evenings drinking, painting and dreaming of what might have been.

Gaby has an old photograph of a happy toddler with dimples taped to the wall by her bunk in the Nova Institution for Women. With her parole hearing weeks away, Gaby has only one goal: to find her daughter.

Bound by blood and loss, three women struggle with lives fractured by a decade-old tragedy.