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Growing up in a two-parent middle-class home, Norah learned to internalize security as a guiding principle. Her sister Bree’s scandalous behavior and failed marriage disgusted their mother, who anointed Norah as her good daughter. Although she envied her sister’s self-confidence and free spirit, Norah married Dr. David Henry for security and poured herself into making an exemplary home. Shattered by news that her daughter Phoebe died at birth while she was under anesthesia, she struggles with her grief alone, isolated in her depression out of deference to her husband, who refuses to speak of Phoebe. Over the years, Norah compensates for David’s withdrawal with alcohol and affairs and finally creates an independent life for herself with her successful travel business.

Norah raises their son Paul to excel and follow his passion for music, maintaining his integrity in spite of opposition from his father. By the time of David’s sudden death, David and Norah are divorced. After Caroline’s news that Phoebe didn’t die at birth, Norah comes to terms with David’s dishonesty by destroying his photographs that documented his longing for his daughter. Norah bridges the past and the present as she reaches out to Phoebe but moves on with the life she has made with her new husband in France.

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