After the shocking death of her parents, Hilary (Jaclyn Smith) and her two younger sisters are torn apart and separated for over 30 years. Loving families take in the youngest girls but Hilary is left behind to endure a terrible childhood of cruel abuse and desperate poverty. Yet, with iron determination, Hilary achieves her dream of success... but erases all trace of her traumatic past. Then, approaching death, an old friend of their parents hires private detective John Chapman to trace the three women and unite them again. Hilary fights desperately to keep her painful memories buried, and as Chapman probes beneath the hardened shell of her life, he discovers an anguished and vulnerable woman.