Iylah can’t seem to catch a break, as life spirals in a manner she cannot control. At twenty-nine, she finds decade-long decisions following her shadow with no island of reprieve. Bad decisions met with grief and new revelations of a mother she loved and clinged onto. Her mother’s past, mingles with her present and begins to make sense of it. What will she learn of her mother? What will she learn of her family? And Whom will she face in the reckoning of what she can’t understand? When her paths cross with another wounded life, will she choose to exchange the lingering sound of gunshots, for the learning rhythms of healing hearts?

Jeb is unlucky in marriage and a hopeful romantic whose heart has been bruised by the meanderings of an ex-wife he would like to quickly wash out of his system. When he finds himself back where it all started, the reminders of a God he refuses to acknowledge are harder to ignore. So is the woman who finds herself in his childhood home. Maybe starting over is what eventually breaks him.

These are the lessons from their mothers, not including how to give up smoking!