What would you do if you were invisible to your husband and your teenage son? How would you feel if they no longer spoke to you; if you knew your husband had had an affair? And what if your mother, a life-long alcoholic, had just suffered a stroke and become completely dependent on you? Above all, what if you were nurturing a secret grief so bitter and painful that it was consuming you from within?

Now imagine that one day you won £30,000. Would you take the money and walk away?

When Carol Ann disappears without trace from her middle-class life in Scotland, she leaves behind a troubled family struggling to come to terms with their past. But the secrets that drove them apart follow her to a new life in Ireland, where she is pursued by memories, particularly of the mysterious Josie. But who was Josie and why does she have such power over the family?

In this stunning debut, award-winning journalist Catherine Deveney explores the loneliness, secrets and silences that can haunt even the most loving of families -- and shows how some bonds, against all odds, can never be broken.