the story of an accidental friendship that gives a grieving mother a priceless gift the ability to understand the thoughts of her eightyearold autistic son and make sense of his brief lifetwo women each cast adrift by unforseen events in their lives meet by accident on a nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendshipolivia is a young mother whose eightyearold severely autistic son has recently died her marriage badly frayed by years of stress she comes to the island in a trial separation to try and make sense of the tragedy of her anthonys short lifebeth a stayathome mother of three is also recently separated after discovering her husbands longterm infidelity in an attempt to recapture a sense of her premarried life she rekindles her passion for writing determined to find her own voice again but surprisingly as she does so beth also find herself channeling the voice of an unknown boy exuberant in his perceptions of the world around him if autistic in his expressiona voice she can share with oliviais it anthonythat brings comfort and meaning to them both