Sylvia Sandon always swore she wouldn't become her mother, but one August morning she finds herself walking the same path as the fervently religious yet faithless Elaine, into an affair she feels powerless to resist. Against the backdrop of California brush fires of the 1970's, twelve-year-old Sylvia had agreed to hold a secret that would devour her family's dream of happiness. Now struggling to create a better life in small-town New England, Sylvia nonetheless feels caught in the coils of history.