Lillian Stahr's family surrounds her deathbed, swapping stories and vitriol about their provocative matriarch while equally spirited Ellie investigates the truth behind her grandmother's colorful reputation.

SYNOPSIS:

Secrets and lies. One covers up the darkness of the other. Lillian Mae Stahr has lived a long and difficult life. Stern but generous, she has been the center of town gossip since she was seventeen when she ran off and married to the nouveau riche neighborhood boy. Gossip hounds all over their small Pennsylvania town positively reveled in glee when Lillian had a little boy four months later.

Years turn to decades, and Lillian’s life kept the rumor mill in a healthy turn with her hairdressing business in her Maple Avenue home, then divorce, the first on county record. Her family takes turns rehashing her downward spiral while she fights for her life in silence. Everything from mob ties to taking in homeless and abused youth, to the real paternity of her son to attempted murder soil her memory. Her granddaughter, Ellie, sets out to find the truth.

While Lillian’s kin rant and rave, picking out their future inheritance with every warped memory, Ellie uncovers more truths than she ever knew existed. Battling to maintain the memory of the woman she knew, Ellie struggles to understand the silver-haired old woman lying in a coma before her.