"Sarah Sinclair flees Memphis to escape the despair of her husband's suicide. She takes with her, Imogene, the Sinclairs' eighteen-year-old daughter. Once in New Orleans, the two women search for solace: Sarah finds hers through a career; while Imogene, "Mo", looks for peace in the contents of a silver flask. One thing is for certain: how Eugene Sinclair died is not to be mentioned; it is to be ignored, to be forgotten. Life is to go on as if nothing has occurred.". "As years pass, Imogene marries Harvey Clark and gives birth to a daughter of her own, Sarah Imogene Sinclair Clark, "Sister", as she is called. Three generations of Sinclair women live on and deny; lie and remain in the dark. Sarah, now "Grandee," loves her grandchild Sister more than life itself; even so, she holds shut the closet door to family secrets. Mo, trapped in a prison of alcoholism, barely endures her heart's dark burdens; yet she, too, stands sentry at the closet's door. Slowly, a key turns in the lock, and the family closet is opened to the light of truth. As she matures, Sister must confront the secrets that have haunted her family and embrace the mother she had come to resent."--BOOK JACKET.