In her fine new Virginia school, Dawn Longchamp feels happy and safe She and her older brother Jimmy finally have a chance for a decent, respectable life, and Dawn's secret, precious hop to study singing can come true Philip Cutler, the most handsome boy in school, sets Dawn's heart on fire and she imagines romance Then Dawn's mother dies suddenly and her entire world crumbles After a terrible new shock, she is thrust into a different family and an evil web of unspoken sins Her sweet innocence lost, humiliated and scorned, Dawn is desperate to find Jimmy and strip away the wicked lies that will change all their lives forever