In 1935, the United States is still coping with severe economic depression. It is easy for people to ignore the rumblings from faraway Europe, and in rural Cascade, Massachusetts, a more immediate threat is at hand: the state will soon decide whether to flood the town to build a great reservoir. If Cascade is chosen, the town will be literally wiped from the maps, drowned.

Desdemona Hart Spaulding is already drowning in Cascade. Dez had enjoyed a privileged life—art schools, study in Paris—and was an up-and-coming Boston artist when she discovered that her ailing father had been hiding sobering news: since the financial crises, he had lost nearly everything. She returned to Cascade and made a hasty marriage to put a roof over his head, only to have him die within months. Now she’s stuck, married to a man who is eager for children she doesn’t want, and bound to the promise she made her father: to someday reopen his acclaimed Shakespearean theater. Her discontent lessens yet becomes more complicated when she meets Jacob Solomon, a fellow artist and kindred spirit who visits Cascade once a week.

In an attempt to rally support for the town, and help save her father’s theater, Dez paints scenarios of the potential devastation for a national magazine. When unexpected acclaim and a chance to live a dreamed-of life in New York beckons, she sees a blameless way out of her commitments. But tragic events unfold, and she is obliged to make difficult choices. Must she keep her promises? Is it morally possible to set herself free?