A picturesque Maine beach town is the setting for Holly Chamberlinâs touching and thought-provoking new
novel, as a mother struggles to reconnect with her long lost daughter âŠ
Every year on March 26th, Verity Peterson visits Ogunquit Beach, where she puts a handwritten message into a
bottle and launches it into the waves. Itâs a ritual of remembrance for the daughter she hasnât seen in sixteen yearsâ
not since her babyâs father, Alan, took two-month-old Gemma and disappeared. Verity keeps searching and hoping,
sustained by the thought that someday she might get to be a mother to her own child. And finally, one phone call may
change everything âŠ
Verity learns that Alan is now in jail on abduction chargesâand Marni Armstrong, born Gemma Peterson-Burns,
is coming to live with Verity in Yorktide, Maine. But this isnât the joyful reunion Verity imagined. Gemma has been
raised to believe Verity was an unfit mother who left Alan no choice but to take her out of harmâs way. Over the course
of one summer, Verity tries to reach a tough, wary young woman whoâs more stranger than daughter. And Gemma
must reexamine everything she thought about her parentsâand decide whether to trust in a relationship that, though
delicate as a seashell on the surface, could prove to be just as beautiful and resilient