A beautifully written and astonishing memoir of a woman – a writer – in the midst of motherhood, marriage and life. While struggling with the demands of family and career, the writer discovers a figure from history, Marguerite de la Rocque, a sixteenth-century noblewoman who was abandoned, pregnant, on a remote island in Nova Scotia. When she is finally rescued, her lover and her baby have died, but she has survived this inhospitable wilderness, alone, for two long years.

It's a remarkable story of survival, but one that has been consigned to a footnote. Delving deeper into Marguerite's hidden life, the writer begins to question her ability to tell this story, the story of any women in history – or even her own.