A New York Times Bestselling AuthorHaving recently turned forty, Iris Greeneder feels the "buts" taking over her life. She is all but published, all but a professor and all but married. A shot at literary success comes with a sudden impulse to write about her mother, Katherine Morrissey, who had written two fantasy novels of a planned trilogy. There was never a third book. When Iris was nine, Kay went off to attend a writer"s conference and died in a hotel fire, registered as another man"s wife. Now, with the urging of Kay"s former literary agent, Iris begins the search for the third and final manuscript which she believes holds clues to the mysteries of Kay"s life -- and death. And through her search she begins to realize that she is not the only one interested in her mother"s past, and that the lost manuscript might hold more secrets than she ever expected.