When twenty-four-year-old Pony Carteret is found drowned at the Carteret summer house on Lake Aral, her death rips apart the proper New England family and unearths secrets thought long buried by their keepers. As the police conduct their investigation, William Carteret, Pony's older brother, can't accept that his favorite sister's death was an accident. Confronted by holes in the family's carefully maintained tapestry of perfection, William must uncover the circumstances of his sister's death, the truth of his own birth, and a dangerous secret his mother has kep hidden for a generation.