It is only when their mother disappears, leaving word with each of her daughters that she will be out of the country, sisters Pagan, Prana, and Zhikr are shaken. A single parent, their mother has always been a stable, constant presence and each of them needs her now. Pagan's second pregnancy has turned into a harrowing nightmare. Prana is devastated when her long affair with a married man starts to fall apart. And Zeke has become—reluctantly—the only sober caretaker for her soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's daughters.

In their mother's absence, the sisters piece together fragments of her past to realize what it might have cost her, a child of the sixties, to sacrifice her free—spirited ways in order to raise them in a comfortable Westchester town. In the face of difficulty—and without her mother's presence—each sister must reflect her mother's resolve and do what is necessary to preserve herself.