When Clara Lawson's home is invaded by armed men, she finds herself separated from her beloved husband and daughters. The last thing her husband yells to her is to 'say nothing'. In chapters that alternate between past and present, the novel slowly unpeels the layers of Clara's fractured life. We see her childhood and we see her now, sequestered in an institution, questioned by men and women who call her a different name - Diana - and who accuse her husband of unspeakable crimes. As her past and present collide she must question everything she thought she knew.