This is the story of a group of friends in Depression-era Kansas tied together by shared interests in quilting, conversation, good food, and keeping secrets. As the narrative unfolds, following its central character through a series of both challenges and affirmations to her beliefs about friendship, it also explores themes relating to the dangers, rewards, and necessities for keeping secrets, to issues of ambiguous morality, and to the passing on of both truths and secrets to future generations.