“Your brother should know the truth.” These are the last cryptic words that Ava Barrett’s father says before he dies. But Ava doesn’t have a brother, as far as she knows, so how can she tell him the truth? She dismisses the conversation and dedicates herself to bringing her family together for her father’s funeral. This is no easy task, since her sister, Elaine, has been estranged from the family and still harbors resentment against their stepmother and half-sister, Gigi. Ava, on the other hand, is a single mother who sees Gigi as a troubled teen in need of love and connection. Ava, too, could use more love in her life and finds it where she least expects it. But the biggest surprise of all is that Gigi holds the key to the mystery surrounding her father’s dying words, and joins Ava in uncovering a secret that rapidly unravels the very fabric of their entire family… CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

Real estate prospectus and description of Plum Island Beach, Massachusetts developed by Plum Island Beach Company: Mark Temple Dowling, president; J. Sumner Draper, treasurer

This is a 1976 NED Army Corps Engineers report on 4.7 miles of shoreline located on Merrimack River near Newburyport-Rowley, MA. Its purpose is to determine economic, technical and environmental feasibility of providing improvement and protection to Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding area. Conclusion: Engineering costs prohibit federal participation in any projects. Recommendation: Non-federal interests undertake immediate action to protect against further erosion, storm damage, loss of private property. Accompanying charts, maps, photos, diagrams. (Author).

On March 10, 2013, 6 houses were lost, 7 condemned and 24 were declared to be in imminent danger on Plum Island in northern Massachusetts. But it was only the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between man and nature on this fragile barrier beach. Plum Island takes readers to the core of the earth to see how Plum Island's sands were first formed in the metamorphic forge of the earth's interior. It will then follow these minerals as they erode off the sides of New Hampshire's Ice Age Mountains and then wash down the proto Merrimack River to form Plum Island. It will chronicle the lives of the Wooly Mammoth, Paleo-Indians, fishermen, farmers, sand miners and rum runners who made a good but hard living on this rugged island in the past and the homeowners, lawyers and scientists who are locked in present battles about its future. In the end, Plum Island puts a human face on the larger story of how coastal communities must inevitably come to grips with the impact of Sea level rise on our ever-warming planet.