During the winter of 1940, five-year-old Anna MacRae is left with twin baby sisters when she loses her mother during their birth. Anna is a gifted child, with a warm personality to match, but not so her sisters—and as they grow, their pranks turn to stealing, bullying and worse, creating an even more difficult life for a motherless daughter.

 

Later in life, much to her dismay, Anna becomes a mother to twins herself. Living with depression in a loveless marriage, she feels like a slave to the two babies. But, even more so, she worries that they will grow to be like the terrible sisters she escaped. While at a new mothers clinic, she meets a young woman who reminds her of herself—alone and unhappy—and she impulsively decides to take her in. It is a reckless act of caring that alters the course of her life and ultimately forces her to make peace with the sisters she left behind.