Maeve was in the kitchen, making tea. She also appeared tired. For someone who usually looked as if she’d stepped out of a clothing catalogue, she was surprisingly unkempt. Her shapeless camel cardigan was at odds with her blue trousers, which were at odds with her green slippers.

Jessie pulled out a chair and sat down beside the table. For once, the kitchen’s comfortable clutter felt claustrophobic rather than welcoming. There were too many plates on the dresser, too many mugs on the draining board, too many magnets on the fridge.

Her mother gave a weak smile, then turned to Lorna. ‘You’ll stay for a cup?’

Please don’t, thought Jessie.

‘I will indeed,’ said her sister, as she found a chair. ‘Jessie, get up there and give Mam a hand. You’ve been sitting down all day.’

So this was how it was going to be.

For five minutes, they drank tea, picked at a currant loaf and swapped small-talk. Finally, it was Lorna who mentioned the unmentionable.

‘Jessie tells me she’s apologised to you.’

‘She has,’ said their mother, ‘only that doesn’t stop us worrying.’

Their father nodded. ‘We should have noticed that things weren’t right.’

Jessie, who’d been examining her fingernails, looked up. ‘I am here, you know. You can ask me.’

‘Yes,’ said her mother, ‘only every time we tried to talk to you on the phone, you clammed up on us. That’s if you bothered answering.’

‘You were very drunk,’ said Lorna.

‘I honestly wasn’t. Well, I was, but the cameras made everything look worse.’

‘What I can’t understand is why they let you on in that state. Or why you didn’t realise you’d stopped making sense.’

Their parents exchanged a look but remained quiet.

‘Like I told you, it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s like . . .’

‘Why don’t you give it a go?’ replied Lorna. ‘We all deserve a proper explanation.’

She had left behind everything she loved to forge a future for the one she treasured most . . .

2019 Dublin. When Jessie Daly loses her job, her flat and her relationship, she travels home to Ireland’s west coast and helps an old friend researching what happened in the area during the 1840s Famine. They are drawn into the remarkable story of a brave young mother called Bridget Moloney, and Jessie becomes determined to find out what happened to Bridget and her daughter, Norah.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Kaitlin Wilson is researching her family tree. She knows her ancestors left Ireland for Boston in the 19th century. Everything else is a mystery. Kaitlin unearths a fascinating story, but her research forces her to confront uncomfortable truths about herself and her family and also uncover a heartbreaking connection to a young woman in the west of Ireland . . .

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Every paper bracelet held a mother’s heartbreaking secret . . .