Grace McPhilips

Mayor Tom Kane sits like a spider at the center of Chicago's web of power; a web built on a covenant with the people. They want to be led, they want disputes settled, jobs dispensed, and loyalties rewarded. If he achieves all this through deception and immorality, so be it. As long as he gets the job done, they look the other way. Yet despite being the most effective mayor in recent history, a degenerative brain disorder is ripping everything away from him. He can't trust his memory, his closest allies, or even himself.

A teacher, haunted by the death of her husband, returns to her childhood home to care for her ill mother. But as her mother's dementia deepens, dark secrets tumble out, including a family secret that will turn her life upside-down forever.