I hadn't seen him since the summer my father disappeared with a red-haired bank teller when I was fifteen, the summer my mother decided to teach me the art of omission, how to tell the perfect lie, or more accurately, how you can choose the truth - with a little hard work and concentration - from the assortment of truths life has to offer.

Lissy Jablonski was fifteen years old when her father ran off. That same summer Lissy and her mother embarked on an adventure of their own - a return to her mother's home town and its cast of extraordinary characters. Their comforting 'girl talks' suddenly begin to yield startling secrets, and this period of life turns into 'the summer that never happened'.

Now Lissy is thirty, facing her father's imminent death and pregnant by her married ex. The arrival of an old boyfriend sends Lissy back to that summer, and triggers a realisation that from the past can come a way to face the future.