Emily Iris looks forward to the times her parents welcome house guests to their family's unhappy home. As long as the visitors are there, her mother and father will put their quarrels aside. But one spring a family of wanderers - an Australian couple and their two boys - comes to stay, starting a chain of events that will shatter Emily's world forever. This book will appeal to readers of Jennifer Donnelly's "A Gathering Light" and Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible". Presented on hardback publication, this fabulous first novel attracted stunning acclaim.