Emmy Rane was married at nineteen and a mother by twenty. Trapped in a life with an abusive husband, Baby was her only joy. Until one day in September, when Emmy walked the sixty-three steps from the backyard to the upstairs closet, and returned to find Baby missing. All that was left behind was a yellow sock, which Emmy clings to as she's institutionalized for what she calls grief and others call mental instability.

In another town, fourteen years later, Sophie is a teenage girl living a reclusive life with her overbearing mother. They move from place to place with almost no notice, always outrunning the No Good. One afternoon, Sophie ventures outside and meets Joey and his two aunts. Their unconventional family opens up Sophie's eyes, giving her the courage to look into her past. And what she discovers changes her world forever. . .

The alternating narratives of Emmy and Sophie tell haunting tales of loss and freedom that complement one another, though set a decade and a half apart.