Every summer Isak L venstad gathers his three daughters by different wives to the windswept Baltic island of Hammars . Here Erika, Laura, and Molly find a sense of family and friendship, although nothing can match Erika's connection to the rebellious misfit Ragnar. But when an act of senseless cruelty separates them forever--and drives the sisters from the island in shame and regret--they must leave childhood and their growing relationships behind. Now, twenty-five years later, they return to visit their ailing father and confront the specter of that awful summer.