The Secrets of the Storm

Five years have passed since Essie, Sharon, and Hannah visited their mother’s cottage on the Florida beach. Their children are growing and involved in activities, leaving no time for the sisters to get away to the cottage. Even Sharon’s frightening dream about one of the dying isn’t enough to pull them together. Time apart drives old wedges between them. Essie still has her turn to call back their mother but is in no hurry to do so. Seeing her again would mean for the last time, and she’s not ready for that.

When a fierce hurricane bears down on the cottage, threatening to destroy it and the magic clock, the sisters cannot agree on what to do. Delaying to the point of being too late, the hurricane almost kills one of the sisters. Disagreements and fighting come between the sisters and their families. Loss, destruction, and crinkling paper bags swirl furiously around what is lost and the search for what used to be.