The spirit of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon describes her murder, her surprise at her new home in heaven, and her witness to her family's grief, efforts to find the killer, and attempts to come to terms with what has happened.

Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.

"An elderly man with dementia, once acquitted of a terrible murder and suspected in many others, is removed from his assisted-living facility by a woman he does not recognize-- a woman who claims to be his long-lost daughter. She takes him on a road trip across Texas, searching for answers to her own burning questions. Following the paths of vanished women, she attempts to discover the truth about this man. Does he really have dementia? Is he a murderer?...