Barbara, Kaye, and Ellen, longtime friends of a certain age, are inseparable - -but each nurtures her own secret. As a widowed mother of three adult children, Barbara has no intention of revealing to anyone her persona as a celebrated writer of erotica. Kaye, in a stable but often joyless marriage, is having a clandestine affair that reawakens her passion even as it fills her with conflict. Ellen has lost her husband to a far younger woman, who is now pregnant with his child - a painful blow to Ellen since she and her husband were never able to conceive. But she is not childless...Ellen is still haunted by the memory of the baby girl she had at sixteen and was forced to relinquish. Estranged from her family, Ellen is reluctantly thrust back into contact with them after the death of her father, and she realizes that if she is ever to find her lost daughter - now a grown woman herself - she will have to confront her shame and rely on her dearest friends.