In Ville Rose, a small fishing village in Haiti, Claire, a young girl, becomes the heart of a pulsating story on the night of her seventh birthday, the same night her father decides to give her away for adoption in hopes of a better future. Claire's disappearance sets in motion a chain of events that surfaces poignant memories and dark secrets among the townspeople, each grappling with their own losses. The vivid and lyrical prose of Edwidge Danticat weaves together the lives of the villagers, painting a portrait of a community bound by shared humanity and the complex tides of life and death, love and loss.