"Don't let him in until I'm gone." That's what Mina Yetner's neighbor whispers to her just before the EMTs take her to the hospital. Mina writes down the message - at nearly ninety, she has to write down most things lest she forget - and calls Sandra's daughter Ginger, telling her that once again her mother needs help.
Evie Ferrante is dismayed when she gets the call from her sister: this time it's Evie's turn to see what their mother's done to herself. But when Evie arrives home - where she hasn't been in months - she's shocked by the state of her mother's house: it's in terrible disrepair, much worse than Ginger led her to believe. And as Evie cleans and organizes, she finds things that don't make sense: expensive liquor in the garage, pricier than their mother's usual brand, a new flat-screen TV on the wall. Where was her mother getting all this money?
The blessing and curse of small neighborhoods is knowing everything about your neighbors, and Evie, suspicious and concerned about her mother, rekindles a relationship with Mina. Mina's been having episodes she can't explain lately, herself, and her nephew Brian is trying to convince her to move to a community that will provide her with some help. Though Mina's resistant, Evie isn't certain that isn't a bad idea. But before any decision is made about Mina, Evie needs her help figuring out what's been going on with her mother - and the more Evie digs into what her mother's been up to over the past few months, the more a bigger - and more sinister - story begins to unfold.
