In the summer of 1945, as World War II is ending, Abby Ryan is studying to become a nun. On the serene grounds of the convent in Kettle Falls, Washington, she is assaulted by trespassers and rescued by Sinclair Mellington, a handsome army captain attending a retreat at the institution.

Decades later, in the fall of 2008, Isaiah Mellington, a middle-aged unemployed attorney, receives a letter written years earlier by his now deceased father, asking him to wrap up loose ends in the wake of Sister Abby's passing. He travels to Kettle Falls, expecting to only be there for a weekend; instead, Isaiah discovers that Sister Abby's loose ends are connected to a life she lived outside the convent. Eight days after his arrival, he is still in Kettle Falls with four women—an aging former nun who is the keeper of Abby's secrets, a romantic interest of his own, and two others whose lives are being hijacked by Sister Abby's past.

As betrayal encroaches upon Isaiah as well, a half century of lies slowly unravels, shredding the fabric of everything he has ever known and everyone he has ever loved.