In 1972, thirty-two-year-old Ann Garrity couldn't ask for more. She has a satisfying teaching career, a comfortable marriage, two wonderful daughters, and a quiet little farm. But when she discovers a lump in her breast, she is thrust back to the agonizing day her mother died of breast cancer. Ann undergoes a biopsy and wakes to discover that her right breast has been removed. Her ultimate fear has come true: like her mother did before her, Ann has cancer.

Ann makes a complete physical recovery, but her self-esteem plummets as she questions her very worth as a woman. Her husband is unable to cope and abandons her, leaving Ann to sink even further into depression. Ann's daughters, Michelle and Holly, stand on the edge of a precipice. Cancer runs in their family, and they know full well they could be the disease's next victims.

After more than twenty years of working through her grief, Ann finally finds peace and acceptance with her life-until her daughter Holly develops terminal cancer at the age of thirty-three. But a scientist's astonishing discovery of a unique genetic defect shared by the two sisters-but not Ann-sends the three women toward a discovery and a shocking revelation that finally leads them down the path to healing.