Doriel, a European orphan transplanted to New York, carries with him a profound sense of desperation and loss. His mother, a resistance leader during World War II, survived the war but soon afterward died in a car crash with Doriel's father. His longing for his parents and their secrets haunt him, leaving him unable to experience the most basic joys in life. A gifted psychoanalyst helps bring him to a crossroads: to a shocking discovery about his mother's life and his own birth, and to the understanding that even the most intimate of wounds can be healed.