A 16 year old girl, Laurel Nicolson watches her mother, Dorothy, commit a murder from her tree house during an afternoon of play. In the present, Laurel knows there's still so much to figure out. Perhaps as a result of the secret, Laurel discovers a tremendous ability to act, and in the present, she is an Academy Award-winning actress. She confronts her mother.
In flashbacks to wartime London, the reader learns more about Dorothy and her friend Vivien, along with their respective men. Dorothy goes by Dolly whose family was killed in a German bombing. Her fiance is Jimmy Metcalfe the photographer. Vivien knows about family tragedy too, having lost her own family years before. She is married to a writer who is old and cruel and abusive. The women are losing their sanity. Dolly has misguided beliefs about a possible inheritance from her employer, but it's nothing but wishful thinking.
In the present, an insidious situation unfolds. Jimmy visits Laurel and sees a picture of Vivien on the wall. Laurel thinks the woman is Dorothy, but in reality, what seems to have happened is that Vivien has assumed Dorothy's identity, and the real Dorothy is long dead.
