At 17 Sophie is a mess. Her best friend is dead and her boyfriend has gone. She's dropped out of school, sleeps through the day, eats all night and refuses to see anyone. Her family has had enough. They're dumping her on an aunt she doesn't know in a country town where she'll be a complete stranger. But Sophie is about to embark on the strangest journey of her life. It will take her into her family's past, back to the origins of the bitter rift between her mother and her Aunt Fran, to her Uncle Jimmy and the Vietnam War, and finally to the girl in the painting and the story haunting all their lives.