This is a novel about what happens after a tragedy in a family Not the tragedy itself but its aftermath, what's left when the tide recedes and it's over A daughter has died, suddenly, shockingly, and the different ways in which her mother and father respond to the tragedy, how this plays out within the family and affects the other siblings, is at the heart of things The sad story is narrated by Louise, mother and primary school teacher, trying to hold herself together and get on with life, trying to understand not 'what happened', but what has happened to them all in the wake of the accident, and why