"My thumb pad rests along the crack in the porcelain that’s been filled in with gold, a Japanese tradition that honors past wounds. I think that if people were repaired the same way; foreheads etched with brass hairline fractures, chips of silver embedded along fingers, bolts of gold shot through hearts, then we would know the places to be careful with." And so Anne's journey begins with her intuitively knowing that she's wounded and her sister's disappearance the catalyst to discovering how and where.
Anne has two passions, The Bean, her coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, and her twin sister Suz, who co-owns The Bean but abandoned the business, and Anne, creating a crack in their once solid bond. Suz’s passion is South Africa and her hero is Nelson Mandela, whose life inspired her to leave family and friends for volunteer work in the townships. When Suz returns to Portland for the Christmas holiday, she disappears after the twins celebrate with too much wine. Anne, her brother and father search for Suz but to no avail. Their efforts are complicated by the fact that Anne has no memory of their last night together. To find her sister, Anne must hack into Suz’s laptop and read her journal, discovering not only Suz’s innermost thoughts but also her ultimate betrayal.