1945: Two sisters give birth to two little girls on the same night, huddled under blankets, deep in the black woods that surround their village. They hold their babies close as footsteps approach. If they make even the slightest sound, the German soldiers will find them....

2006: Luce Nardini clutches a plane ticket to Italy in her trembling hands. Since her only child left home, and with her estranged husband more distant than ever, she’s been overwhelmed with loneliness. She never knew her father, or the reason why her mother cut all contact with her family in the little village of Bosconero. Lost and unravelling fast, uncovering her roots feels like Luce’s last and only hope.

As Luce searches the maze of cobbled streets, a house with a faded blue door draped in perfect white roses stops her in her tracks. Inside is the grandmother she never knew, who - with a longing look at an ornate wooden box on her nightstand - begins to tell the heart-wrenching story of a little village ravaged by war, and why Luce’s mother fled home and swore never to return.

Surrounded by new friends and faded frescoes of saints, Luce is just starting to feel like she belongs when the unthinkable happens: an earth-shattering disaster that shakes the little village of Bosconero to its core. Could it be that the secrets of Luce’s past have been buried forever?

Frightened, hopeless, and feeling more alone than ever before, will the surprise arrival of the husband she thought she’d lost help sew Luce’s family back together or tear it apart for good? One thing is certain: She must find the little wooden box among the rubble of the village and return it to her grandmother. But nothing will have prepared Luce for the devastating betrayal she finds inside....

A historical romance about the secrets we keep to protect the ones we love by the author of million-copy Amazon number one best seller Watch Over Me. Perfect for anyone who loves Fiona Valpy, Lily Graham, or The Letter by Kathryn Hughes.