When the women in the Sparrow family reach thirteen, they develop a unique ability. In young Stella`s case, the gift, which is both a blessing and a curse, is the ability to see a person`s probable future. Stella foresees a gruesome murder, and tells her charming, feckless father about it, but it is too late - the murder has already been committed and suspicion falls on him. Her mother Jenny, on the other hand, can read other people`s dreams, but so often misinterprets them, to her own cost. Hoffman unlocks the caskets of family life and the secret history of a community in this magical story about young love and old love, about making choices - usually the wrong ones - about foresight and consequences, all suffused with the haunting scent of roses and wisteria, and the hum of bees on a summer evening.