Betty Sue Tucker Shaw is a woman haunted by her traumatic past. She lives alone, all but abandoned by her family, for reasons both deserved and unjust. When she has a stroke, her ability to communicate is all but obliterated, and she finds herself in a terrifying struggle to deal with the demons of the past while figuring out how to navigate her way through a world she can no longer talk to.

Remlee Shaw Shephard is Betty Sue's estranged daughter. After running away from her less-than-idyllic childhood, she has managed to create a life for herself. She's a successful restaurant owner and devoted wife who has her life all figured out. Her serenity is shattered when she gets the call informing her of her mother's fate, and she finds herself set on a course of reconciliation with her past.

With her dutiful husband in tow, Remlee embarks on a journey back to her hometown to deal with the fallout of her mother's medical misfortune. Along the way, she reconnects with the family she tried so hard to escape from, and uncomfortable truths boil to the surface, forcing her to reexamine her feelings toward the people who share her blood.

Betty Sue's journey back to communion with the world is full of struggle and strife. Old ghosts dog her every thought, and the past isn't gone, not in the damaged corridors of her mind. She lives her trauma over and over as she struggles to free herself from this blood-clot-induced limbo. It is only when she begins to let go of the past that she is able to escape it and move on into a brighter future with what family she has left.