Faith Madison is the very picture of a sophisticated New Yorker. Slim, blonde, stylish, married to a successful merchant banker, she has a life many would envy. But Faith has overcome a childhood marred by tragedy, and has carried within herself a secret she can divulge to no-one.
The death of her stepfather sets off a journey of change and revelation. At the funeral, an old friend re-enters Faith's life. Brad, a lanky boy from her childhood days who had teased, tormented and protected her, is now a lawyer in California, and Faith meets him again just as she makes a decision that plunges her marriage into crisis. Determined to have a career of her own, Faith applies to law school against her husband's wishes, igniting a barrage of anger and recrimination. As she and Brad re-discover each other, Faith is finally ready to face the most painful step of all: of sharing a secret that has long been haunting her, and opening up her heart for the first time in her life.
With unerring insight, Danielle Steel tells a wise and moving story of the secrets that wound and the choices that heal and of the second chances that come only once in a lifetime.