A decade ago, Meredith Whitt was the best-selling author of a book that launched a movement and her career. Until her 16-year-old daughter was murdered, sending her into a severe depression she is just now coming out of.

When an enthusiastic agent encourages her to write a new book, Merry sees it as a way to return to her successful, independent self, without the help of the unlikely trio of Concord women writers she's thrown in with. But a dramatic turn of events rekindles Merry's tragedy, fosters anger in her family, and threatens to plunge her back into the darkness. In some rather unconventional ways, the group that names themselves the Footnotes goes with her on a quest to find out what really happened the day her daughter was killed.

The answers may destroy Merry all over again-or finally show her who she really is.