Pulitzer Prize winning author Anne Tyler gives us the powerfully poignant story of a young man's guilt over his brother's death and of his years of effort at atonement.

Baltimore - home of the "apple pie" Bedlow family. At 17, Ian, the youngest, has the usual dreams of the future. But he also has a secret that sparks a fatal tragedy - and from that moment on, nothing in Ian's life will ever be the same as he painfully pursues redemption. His journey will begin with the Church of the Second Chance, whose philosophy is that forgiveness must be earned. It will move through the therapeutic discovery of his own creative abilities.

And finally, it will culminate in Ian's healing through the lure of big-boned Rita who burst into the Bedlow's lives and sweeps away the cobwebs.