Although I sensed from the outset that I consistently misunderstood the threads that tie this story together, I was still deeply moved by Tucker’s realistic examination of family and marriage. Like delicate snowdrops falling over the forest, Tucker's heavy and contained drama transforms into something liquid, giving an unpredicted piquancy to her overriding themes.

Michael lives with his parents, David and Kyra, in a “house full of doubt.” Chronically afraid, both David and Kyra are convinced they have failed as parents. Consumed with their son’s health, they tenaciously watch his every step and chronicle his every action. Michael knows he’s isn’t supposed to talk to strangers, but when the lady says she’s a friend, Michael is seduced by her car full of toys.

David and Kyra can’t quite believe their son has been snatched from the backyard. Almost at once, the police investigation turns to David’s ex-wife, Courtney, despite David telling the detectives that Courtney had no reason to take Michael--indeed, David hasn’t had contact with Courtney in years. The boy’s kidnapping takes its toll, his disappearance revealing David and Kyra’s years of unrelenting self-doubt over their ability to function as parents.

In graceful, introspective tones, Tucker details each character's backstory. As different as they are, each has one common over-arching issue: coming to terms with the consequences of the past. While Kyra’s intricate logic puzzles act as thematic cement, binding the story together, the symbolic pot at the end of the rainbow is each character coming to an understanding of how fragile their happiness really is.

The family emergency--Michael's disappearance--brings David’s mother, Sandra, and his ex-wife tumbling back into his and Kyra’s lives. We learn of Kyra's teenage years, of her sister Amy and a mother who abandoned them along with an emotionally diffident father. Amy, the more rebellious sister, wanted to sing in a rock band and have sex too early, but both girls harbored the dream of going to college together. Amy’s sudden vanishing act becomes a catalyst for Tucker’s intense exploration of unconditional sibling love.

Sandra, a geriatric nurse, must comfort her David. Her failure to save her son from his first marriage is a weight she carries on her back, the guilt aging her over the years. While David embarks on his mission to find delicate Michael, Courtney retreats. Emotionally scarred, she’s caught up in a whirlwind of office politics. With her fidgety fingers and bitten-down nails, she visits a psychic. The woman’s vague predictions that a mysterious person will enter her life provide Courtney with a sign of things to come.

Peppered throughout are the emotional missives of a young girl. Moving from David and Kyra’s fanatical search for Michael, the novel’s point of view subtly shifts, focusing instead on this girl’s baffling connection to the Winter family. Sandra must learn to accept the wall that David has put up between them, while Courtney tries to work though her devastating loss. Only Kyra seems capable of adapting to the evolving family dynamic.

Tender and intuitive, there are no easy answers here, although the Winters do bloom in spite of the odds, even exceeding expectations as they work together to achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and of each other.