Belva Plain

The owner of a New England glassworks company, widow Cassie Wright struggles to raise her surviving child, Gwen, in the face of unbearable tragedy, but as Gwen blossoms into an independent young woman, dissention drives the two apart.

Septuagenarian Iris Stern questions her beliefs about what it means to be a woman and a wife when her daughter's marriage crumbles, an event that is complicated by the revelation of a dark family secret.