One quiet summer night in 1917, on the craggy coastline of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Beatrice Haven sneaks out of her uncle's house, sets her newborn baby under a pear tree, and watches as another mother, who has her own reason to be in the orchard that night, claims the infant for herself. The unwed daughter of wealthy Jewish industrialists and a gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start. But ten years later, nothing has gone as planned. Bea's dreams for her future have been discarded, and she returns to Cape Ann seeking refuge from her unhappiness. When she hires a nurse to care for her uncle, the woman appears to be a simple fisherman's wife and mother of nine--but the headstrong Emma Murphy is much more. Under cover of night, she makes moonshine out of stolen pears and sneaks away to sleep with the married manager of the local quarry. Yet it's another truth that Emma guards more closely: she is the one who has been raising Bea's abandonded daughter, now a bold girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own. As spring turns to summer, Bea and Emma begin to build a strained, strange friendship, even as Lucy, fearing her adoptive father's temper, plans her escape. Then Bea makes yet another rash decision, one that will force all of them to face the truth, including the betrayels that haunt them, the desires that drive them, and their capacity for love and forgiveness.