Iris Bowen is a young Irish gardener and mother of a beloved adopted daughter, Rose. A recent widow, Iris has spent the last two years concentrating on the day-to-day business of launching Rose into the world. But when she receives some worrisome results on a breast scan, the words of her husband as he was dying of cancer become hauntingly urgent. He had begged Iris to search for Rose's birth mother so that Rose would still have family if anything happened to Iris. Suddenly, Iris fears that Rose really could be left alone. With no records to guide her beyond a twenty-year-old envelope, Iris impulsively begins a journey into the past that takes her to Boston and back to the west of Ireland, with surprising results for herself and for Rose and the others whom their lives touch.