The plot of this novel hinges on an accident that happened twenty-five years before the story begins, which set off a chain of events that destroyed relationships and caused a young woman to grow up distant from her roots, and her extended family. The accident created grief and the burden of guilt that changed people and relationships, which altered the course of people’s lives.

Anna Kate’s mother, Eden, carries the burden of guilt around like a giant tree that bears fruit in Anna Kate’s struggles to allow people close to her, in her grief at the limitations put on her relationship with her grandmother, Zee, whom she adores, and in her understanding of her roots. Although Anna Kate loves Eden dearly, she knows Eden never gets over her grief at the loss of AJ, and she believes that Eden’s death was her mother’s broken heart finally giving up, once Anna Kate was old enough to take care of herself.

AJ’s mother, Seelie, carries her grief in the form of anger at Eden, which she nurtures like a rare plant. This plant also bears fruit in the next generation in the form of damage to the mother-daughter relationship between Seelie and Natalie and the way the town of Wicklow perceives Seelie.