Just before she dies, Diedre McAlister's mother gives her a fading photograph and tells her, ''Find yourself. Find your truth. Just don’t expect it to be what you thought it would be.'' Armed with these clues to her past, Diedre sets out to find her older sister, Amber, who was mysteriously sent away by her parents when Diedre was very young. Her search will take her across the country -- and into the path of someone who will do anything to stop...

Twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones is bright and energetic. But over the past 18 months Cassie has been rushed to Western Pediatric Medical Center with alarming frequency. Each time her pediatrician fails to come up with a diagnosis and finally calls in Dr. Alex Delaware. Instinct tells him that someone is deliberately making Cassie ill, and the prime suspects are the parents. But Alex also realizes that something disturbing is going on in the hospital...

When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.