anonymous

Eighteen-year-old Anna is still learning how to live in the world outside Advocate Hospital where she spent months there as a psychiatric patient. As her high school friends and boyfriend Murph head off to college, Anna still struggles to overcome the wounds of her past while navigating the challenges of the future.

Charlotte and Simone have an unusual friendship. Charlotte is the daughter of James Worthington, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner and enslaver. Simone, the daughter of a slave, was taken from her mother’s arms and sold to James. When Simone arrives at Huntington Manor Plantation at seven years old, she and Charlotte have an immediate bond. But as the girls mature, there is no denying their different positions on the plantation—Charlotte is privileged, and Simone is an enslaved servant.

Seventeen-year-old Anna, the ninth child of ten, has returned home after three months in a locked psych ward on the fifth floor of Advocate Hospital. Together with her parents and siblings, Anna struggles to improve when she is immersed in her family’s inability to discuss the tragedy that occurred ten years ago. Though Anna continues therapy with her psychiatrist Dr. Ellison, her bad situation worsens when she returns to high school. Ashamed of her failures and the sheer apathy she feels from others, Anna is forced into making rash decisions as she contemplates the worst.

Seven-year-old Anna was smiling when she was given the news. It’s not that she misunderstood what she heard, but her smile froze as her brain stopped thinking and her breathing slowed. To her older sister Frances, Anna’s smile looked like one of ignorance and foolishness, but both were misconceptions. Anna’s smile was one of horror. She was the reason Liz would not be returning home.