As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her long-disappeared little sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ...

As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her long-disappeared little sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.

From the New York Times * bestselling author of the Tradd Street novels comes a story of one woman's journey into a secret past--and a life she never expected on the ravaged coast of Biloxi, Mississippi....Working at an auction house in New York, Julie Holt meets a struggling artist and single mother who reminds her very much of her missing younger sister. Monica Guidry paints a vivid picture of her Southern family through stories, but never says why or how she lost contact with them. And she has another secret: a heart condition that will soon take her life. Feeling as if she's lost her sister a second time, Julie inherits from Monica an antique portrait--as well as custody of her young son. Taking him to Biloxi, Mississippi, to meet the family he's never known, Julie discovers a connection of her own. The portrait, of an old Guidry relative, was done by her great-grandfather--and unlocks a surprising family history.... READERS GUIDE INCLUDED*