Having taken a young Chinese woman under her wing, teacher Emma Perotti finds herself on trial for the girl's murder.

Almost five years earlier, An-ling Huang walked into Emma's ESL classroom and into her family's life. Emma was drawn to the vulnerability she perceived in An-ling. An-ling, for her part, seemed to long for a surrogate mother and eagerly attached herself to Emma. Emma's husband, Tom, resented An-ling's intrusion and his wife's affection for her. Their son, Josh, developed his own relationship with her. Dredging up painful memories and buried grief, An-ling's presence threatened to tear the family apart.

Then An-ling is found dead, suffocated. As Emma's trial progresses, An-ling is revealed not to have been who she claimed, and we learn that the family members all have their own dark secrets.

Camilla Trinchieri was born in Prague to an Italian diplomat father and American mother and came to the United States at age twelve. After graduating from Barnard College, she moved to Italy. She returned to New York City in 1980 and earned an MFA in writing from Columbia University. As Trella Crespi and Camilla Crespi she has published seven mystery novels.