Joe is in control of everything in his simple life --- both his day job as a janitor for the police department and his “night work.” He isn’t bothered by the daily news reports of the Christchurch Carver, who has murdered seven women. Joe knows, though, that the Carver killed only six. He knows that for a fact, and he’s determined to find the copycat. He’ll punish him for the one, then frame him for the other six.

Dana and Julie were bonded by sisterhood and separated by a devastating secret. When Dana returns to Black Bear, Minnesota, some people remember her as a troublemaker while others remember her as the one who got away. Dana comes back for her sister's funeral, but stays to help Peyton, her teenaged niece. What she finds in her old hometown will blow open a Pandora's box of tightly-held secrets, and put everyone she loves in jeopardy.

The story of the Hastings family --- their secrets, their loves and losses, dreams and heartbreaks --- captured in a series of individual moments that follow four generations of the family between the First World War and the present.