Celeste English and Ronnie Frazier are sisters, but they couldn't be more different. Celeste is a doctor's wife, living a perfect and elegant façade. But secretly, her marriage is falling apart and her need to control people around her threatens to destroy them all. Ronnie is an actress, living in New York. But she has no money, she has no home, and her life is held together by "chewing gum, paper clips, and spit." When their father dies, the sisters inherit a house in Prosper, North Carolina. Their mother, Della, would rather they forget about going there and dredging up the past. Neither of them suspect that their trip to Prosper will uncover decades-old secrets, family betrayals, and tangled relationships - or that it will make these two strangers realize that they are, and always will be, sisters.

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant met while working as models. Virginia went on to become editor in chief for Maxima, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for plus-size women, and Donna was the magazine's managing editor. They moved on together to become novelists. Virginia lives in New Jersey. Donna and her husband live in Brooklyn.