Katherine O'Dell is an Irish theater legend turned Hollywood film star. Every moment of her life is a performance, with her daughter, Norah, standing in the wings. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, however, Katherine's grip on reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a shocking crime. As Norah revisits her mother's life of fiercely kept secrets, she confronts in turn the secrets of her own sexual and emotional coming-of-age. With virtuosic storytelling and in prose at turns lyrical and knife-sharp, Anne Enright takes readers to the heart of the maddening yet tender love that binds a mother and daughter.