Elise Sorenson has been striving for the Olympics as long as she can remember. The months of intense training and competition in the horse show world take her away, far too often, from her husband, Matt, and their eight-year-old daughter, Gracie. Matt, a lawyer still vying to make partner at fifty, has made huge sacrifices in his career to be Gracie’s primary caregiver. This was the deal Elise and Matt struck, but it’s no longer working. Their finances and their relationship are strained to the point of snapping, and they’re forced to sell the lakeside cabin that has been in Matt’s family for generations to pay for yet another year of dressage and school fees and the physiotherapy Gracie needs for her disability.

When the Sorensons arrive in Lake Placid to prepare the cabin for sale, Matt is taken aback by the frosty reception from locals who’ve always revered his family. What could have possibly changed? But all their worldly problems fade when the unthinkable happens to their daughter.

In the panic and confusion that follow, the fault lines in Elise and Matt’s marriage crack wide open, allowing long-held resentments and blame to come bursting to the surface . . .

In Tish Cohen’s riveting new novel, she explores how our truest selves are revealed in our very darkest moments.