Adoptee Lia has followed her Spanish teacher, Rafael, to Guatemala, for romance and adventure. She doesn't know much about the country, but she's happy because she's finally living life on her own terms.

On their first night together, Lia decides to declare her feelings, but before she gets the chance, the unimaginable happens and Rafael is brutally killed. Devastated, Lia travels to Rafael's family home in the countryside, where she becomes determined to find out why.

But not everyone is keen on her investigation. The locals are hostile and the landowner has family problems. Lia has to decide what is more important: living without answers or taking the deadly consequences that come with the truth.

Set against a backdrop of civil unrest and huge political change, Naylor shows the powerful impact the past can have, decades down the line.