The once illustrious, once wealthy Melroses are in peril.Caught up in the wreckage of broken promises, child-rearing,adultery and assisted suicide, Patrick finds his wife Maryconsumed by motherhood, his mother in thrall to a New Agefoundation, and his young son Robert understanding far morethan he should. But even as the family struggles against thepull of its ever-present past, a new generation brings a newtenderness, and the possibility of change.
