Every year on March 26th, Verity Peterson visits Ogunquit Beach to launch a message in a bottle into the waves for the daughter she hasn't seen in sixteen years. Since the baby's father, Alan, took two-month-old Gemma and disappeared, Verity has kept searching and hoping. And finally, one phone call may change everything . . .

The town of Yorktide, close to Maine s beautiful beaches and the city of Portland, seems like the perfect place to raise a family. For Jane Patterson, there's another advantage: her best friend, Frannie Giroux, lives next door, and their teenaged daughters, Rosie and Meg, are inseparable. But in the girls freshman year of high school, everything changes. Rosie quiet, shy, and also very pretty attracts the sneers and slights of a clique of older girls....

Every June, the quiet beach town of Ogunquit is overtaken by wealthy families who hire local young women like Amy Latimer and Hayley Franklin to care for their children. Best friends since childhood, Amy and Hayley are eager to secure lucrative summer jobs. Amy wants to finance her upcoming move to Boston. Hayley hopes to squirrel away enough money so that her mom can finally leave her abusive husband.... But the passing weeks bring complications...