How do years of sharing everything, from genetics to hairbrushes, result in people so different from each other?
Three sisters raised in Michigan follow completely different pathways. The oldest, Nettie, threw away every advantage she had while still in her teens, and her mystified parents and siblings watched in horror as she spent years in squalor and degradation. Middle sister Ruth fell in love with a wealthy man and now has a life beyond all the dreams she spun in the cramped, upstairs bedroom of their parents' old farmhouse. Youngest sister Kim falls somewhere between. Serious and conscientious, she works at a small firm along with her husband. Life seems okay until he announces he wants out of their marriage and out of the life he finds cloying and trivial.
When Ruth's charismatic husband decides to run for President, her star rises along with his. Despite her strong opinions on certain topics, voters like Ruth and sense that she has what it takes to support the popular candidate through the election and beyond. While Ruth campaigns, Nettie grows vegetables on the family farm and struggles to recover from her past mistakes. She avoids company, even that of her sisters. Stressed, broke, and alone, Kim supports her sisters in small ways, listening when they want to talk and agreeing that one of these days, they'll all get together.
Tragedy strikes the three women, each instance different but devastating. Nettie commits a murder she refuses to explain, and she is sent to prison. Kim is fired from her job for misconduct. And Ruth, as the new First Lady, must deal with a crisis that threatens her husband's Presidency only minutes after he takes the oath of office.
As events move around them, the sisters grow closer in some ways, but serious differences emerge as well. As a result, they each find support outside the family. Ruth comes to trust the President's Chief of Staff, who is brilliant at navigating difficult situations. Nettie befriends a young prisoner and finds herself involved in his plan to escape. And Kim, determined to find out why Nettie became a killer, enlists the help of the lawyer who represented her at trial. As he uncovers secrets Nettie's been hiding for years, they face a shocking truth that will affect them all.
Several suspicious deaths and a terrifying escape make it more and more difficult for the sisters to support each other. In the end, each must decide what she will do for the other two: how much danger she