Tumbling backwards in time, from 1987 to 1938, and seen through the eyes of four generations of women, is the story of one extended family and the secrets from the past that shaped their lives. The story begins when Margaret Neal, a junior at Harvard, drops out after a disastrous liaison and its unfortunate consequences. Aimless and guilt-ridden, she decides she has to get away from the East Coast altogether. For the money to buy a ticket to California she appeals to her Aunt Nell Kerwin, a no-nonsense ex-schoolteacher who still lives in the old family home where, each Thanksgiving, the members of the Kerwin clan come together for a raucous family reunion. When Nell replies to Margaret's plea, she encloses a gift—an odd but cherished sourvenir that weaves in and out of the story as a series of crucial truths about the family's haunted history is revealed.