Dana, the widow of a US senator, buries her husband the morning of September 11, only miles from the Washington plane crash. After months of not knowing what to do, she sells her house and heads south in an effort to pick up the lost strands of her youth. Finding that her grandmother's house is now gone, replaced by a shopping mall, she phones an old acquaintance from her school days. Cassius Huston is black, separated from his jealous wife, and devoted to his three-year-old daughter. Much to their surprise, Cassius and Dana fall in love. But when Dana is threatened by Cassius's family, she flees to the coast, where she finally finds herself, and her life, in a place and culture she could never have anticipated. Set amid the blur of September 11, this wise novel of love, race, territory and self-discovery explores those issues that challenge us all.