She stops at nothing to maintain a veneer of Victorian respectability. But the consequences of infidelity prove far worse than mere exposure. After straying into the arms of Doc Foster and becoming pregnant, small-town civic leader Louise Morrissey faces ruin if anyone--especially her husband--finds out. When infection steals the eyesight of her newborn baby, Louise knows it is punishment for her sin. What she doesn't know is that the web of deceit she weaves to safeguard her marriage and reputation will eventually ensnare her husband and daughter with tragic consequences. Guilt-ridden and seeking redemption, Louise risks revelation of her secrets as she joins Helen Keller, who dares to "speak the unspeakable," in a grassroots movement to end the blinding scourge known as "babies' sore eyes." In a confessional moment, Louise signs in Helen's hand: "When you wrote 'they enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin, ' you were writing about me." A fictional version of real events, the story pits Louise, Helen, and others against society's taboos as they champion what would become one of the greatest public health triumphs of the twentieth century. And the story is one of romantic love at its most complicated, tragic, and poignant.