Searching for her birth mother sends Natalie Merin to a small town in Oregon and catapults her into the past in this chilling novel of family secrets and lies.

When Natalie Merin's grandmother dies, she discovers that her birth mother, Colleen Winters, disappeared from the small town of Cascade Locks, Oregon twenty years earlier. Natalie travels to Oregon hoping to find out what happened to her mother. Instead, she finds people who won't talk about Colleen, who act like she never existed, or if she did, their life was better without her. She learns that several prominent people in town will do anything to protect what they feel is important to keep hidden.

Soon, Natalie uncovers her mother's romance with a Mexican immigrant thirty years earlier. When he was murdered, her mother's lies caused the town to crucify her. Who was she protecting? Why did she lie? Natalie realizes that someone knows what happened to her mother so many years ago. The more she probes into her mother's life, the harder the town tries to stop her, until finally she comes up against a killer who will do anything to protect their secrets, including killing again, and Natalie must decide if finding out what happened is worth her life or the lives of people she's come to care about.