For Annie Barnes, going home to Middle River means dealing with truths long hidden. But it is a journey she knows she must take if she is to put to rest, once and for all, her misgivings about her mother's recent death.
To an outsider, Middle River is a picture-perfect New Hampshire town. But Annie grew up there, and she knows all its secrets -- just like her idol, Grace Metalious, author of the infamous novel Peyton Place, which laid a small town's sexual secrets bare for all the world to see. Grace's bold rebellion against 1950s conformity inspired Annie to get out of Middle River and make a life for herself.
Annie Barnes is now a bestselling author. Her success has given her a confidence she never had and the residents of Middle River something new to worry about. When they hear Annie is returning for a lengthy visit, everyone believes she's come home to write about them.
But passion and rage propels Annie on a different course altogether. Coming face-to-face with decades of secrets and lies, she knows she must find the strength to move beyond the legacy of Grace Metalious, defying her past to heal the wounds of the town and her own family.