In 1957, in a plain house outside Lincoln, Nebraska, Caril Ann struts in front of her mirror in a pink kimono embroidered with figures of women dancing. She thinks of the fight she is about to have with her stepfather and vows to hold her ground. Today she will find a tree house and meet a boy named Charlie Starkweather, who reminds her of James Dean. Love will pull them together. On another day, not far off, Charlie will drive Caril Ann in a fancy Packard through the falling snow to a town called Valentine. Her life will change forever. Everyone will always remember her name.In 1991, in the silence of an early Manhattan morning, Lowell - a middle-aged dealer in antiquities - wakes with fragments of dreams and the memory of a spot of blood slowly spreading out, changing everything. Lowell's thoughts go back to his childhood, to his mother's attempts to learn the piano, to the snow drifting down across the plains in the far-off place that was his home. Today he will see that his marriage to his wife, Susan, no longer works, despite all that has passed between them. And he will try to turn away.In 1962, Puggy - she hates that nickname - comes home to an empty house. The snow has made her yard into a perfect curtain of white. Until her mother comes back, Puggy will play detective, spying on the boy down the street who lost his family to the Starkweather murders. She will read the old clippings from the Lincoln Journal Star and wonder if anyone could ever love her like Charlie loved Caril Ann. She will remember her parents dancing. She will try to figure out what it is that people do when they have lost someone forever.How do these lives intersect? What happened during that winter of blinding snow? At the heart of this haunting debut novel is a shocking crime with effects and repercussions that reach across the years and miles, changing the course of lives, again and again. Alternating among the voices of her three major characters, Liza Ward captures their inflections and emotions as she gradually unravels the hidden past they share. As the pieces of this alluring puzzle come together, all the questions are answered. Read Less