Her family's cottage on the New Jersey shore was a place of freedom and innocence for Julie Bauer -- until tragedy struck when her seventeen-year-old sister, Isabel, was murdered.

It's been more than forty years since that August night, but Julie's memories of her sister's death still color her world, causing turmoil in her relationships with her teenage daughter, Shannon, and her mother, Maria.

Now an unexpected letter from someone in her past raises questions about what really happened that night. Questions about Julie's own complicity, about a devastating secret her mother kept from them all. Questions about the person who went to prison for Izzy's murder -- and about the man who didn't.

Now Julie must harness the courage to revisit her past and untangle the shattering emotions that led to one unspeakable act of violence on the bay at midnight.