On the day J. F. K. is inaugurated, Claire, a wife and mother obsessed with the glamour of Jackie, struggles over whether to stay in a secure marriage or to follow the man whose baby she may be carrying. Decades earlier in 1919, Vivien Lowe, an obituary writer, is searching for her lover who disappeared in an earthquake in 1906. By telling the stories of the dead, Vivien not only helps others cope with their grief but also begins to understand the devastation of her own terrible loss.