On a sultry June night, a tinker and her baby are trapped in a burning barn.  From the big house across the fields the Cairns children watch the blaze, fascinated and shocked. The woman touched their safe, ordinary childhood only once, but as adults they are still haunted by her: Marion facing illness, Eleanor widowhood, David – but who knows what David’s life is like?  All his sisters know is that in his frequent absences they miss him and when he comes back he makes everything seem magical. And yet David leaves disaster in his wake – or perhaps it’s just bad luck that terrible things happen when he is around.  Back at Pitcairn after their aunt’s death, Marion and Eleanor discover that Alice’s legacy is a secret whose exposure unravels the past.  Fundamental truths dissolve in the space of an afternoon; nothing is the way they had believed it to be.

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