"Alice, a young American, arrives in the West of Ireland with no plans and no strong attachments--except to her beloved mother, who raised her on her own. Alice falls in love with an Irishman, marries him, and settles down in a place whose customs she struggles to understand. In the course of a single hot summer, she embarks on an affair that breaks her marriage and sets her life on a new course. Years later, after working in war zones around the...