When Ruth Sterling was a teenager, she slipped away one night, desperate to escape an abusive home and a troubling boyfriend. Pregnant, alone, and prepared to do anything to survive, she eventually makes a life for herself--and soon, for her newborn daughter Catherine. For more than twenty years, Ruth has lived quietly and has provided for her daughter.

But she is always ready to run at a moment's notice, and never allows either of them to put down roots too deeply. Now, Catherine is grown and craves a life for herself. This is something her mother will do anything to prevent--but for what reasons? It has always been just the two of them against the world.

But how well do they really know each other? When Ruth's deeply held quest to keep Catherine by her side reveals cracks in her carefully constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception. They both have secrets. But which one of them carries the real darkness inside?