The Kelleher clan's beachfront holiday house creaks under a weight of secrets. Won in a bar-room bet after the War, it is a place where cocktails follow morning mass, children eavesdrop, and ancient grudges fester. One summer, three generations of Kelleher women descend on the shore. Kathleen, finally sober, hoped never to set foot there again. Maggie, pregnant, has left her hopeless boyfriend. Ann-Marie, bound to the family by marriage, fantasizes about an extra-marital affair. In the middle of all this is matriarch Alice, who drinks to forget her failings as a parent and the events of a single night, decades before. As changeable as the sea in front of their house, the Kelleher family is by turns fierce and loving, cruel and unforgiving. Maine is a novel of sibling rivalry and painful secrets, alcoholism and denial; it lays bare the paradoxical nature of family and the love that we are bound to, no matter how savage the storm.