Shirley Falls was a dying New England mill town (shades of Empire Falls) with a polluted, smelly river. And this was the hottest, most humid summer on record. The mill office workers, the elite of the Congregational church, single mother, Isabelle, and sixteen-year-old Amy are all weighted down with secret fears and problems. The very atmosphere of the place is making them depressed and apathetic.

Then Isabelle learns of the relationship between Amy and her math teacher and all the seething tension comes to the surface.

This is a well-written insightful book. The reader comes to know and care about the lives of these ordinary people and the struggles they face.