Lucy Summers lives in small town America. Her early prospects of a career away from Blowing Rock, North Carolina, ended when her adoptive mother fell seriously ill. Married to a troubled former Marine, Lucy’s life is further complicated by her father’s depression and lack of will to live following his wife’s death. After regretfully placing her father in a nursing home, she makes a startling discovery in his office that leads her to question the father she knows; it also sheds light on the real reason for his illness. As she searches for answers her marriage begins to unravel, and a former lover in China becomes central to her quest for the truth about her father. Two families in China soon take center stage, and secrets are revealed involving a murder during the days when China opened to the West. Lucy’s struggle to confront her father about his past is her only hope of saving him; however, as the painful truth begins to emerge she is faced with a tragic loss. Ultimately, Lucy discovers that her father is more sinister than she ever imagined, and that her own identity is far from what she was led to believe.