Ann Marie Dawson discovered herself along a road less taken. So less taken, in fact, until the Autumn of 1939 she believed she was entirely alone in a world she constructed for herself, where time and people mattered only as much or as little as she wanted, and the secrets tucked away in her father's private journals were life's greatest mystery. She soon discovers they were also the most treacherous mystery, as she is thrust into reality by the unforgivable confessions she finds within the pages. Shaken with newfound sympathy for her reclusive mother and treading dangerous waters amid her well-to-do family, the last thing Ann Marie wants is to be faced with the duality of her own nature when her indiscretion brings into her home two Jewish refugees from Poland--notably, the young man named Lawrence, who won't utter a word for weeks but summons a gentleness into her life that she's never known. With each passing day the revels of innocence and the ache of a world at war are forced to infringe upon one another, and Ann Marie invites Lawrence into her world, where against all she's fought for, time grips them, and begins to change them. cover art by Cynthia Tedy