Sabbathday River

One warm September morning in 1985, not far from the town of Godard, New Hampshire, Naomi Roth finds the drowned body of a newborn baby girl floating in the Sabbathday River. The community rapidly fingers Heather Pratt, a young single mother notorious for her affair with a married man, as the prime suspect, and after intensive interrogation by the police, Heather confesses to the crime. When Naomi, following Heather's directions, uncovers the body of a second infant -- who was born on the same day as the other baby -- on Heather's property, she assumes charges against the girl will be dropped. Instead, to Naomi's amazement, Heather is charged with the murder of both infants.

Naomi, herself something of an outcast in conservative Goddard, is moved and angered by Heather's plight, and engages the help of Judith Friedman, a lawyer, to defend her. But when the truth at the heart of this astonishing case finally comes to light, it is Naomi who must confront how little she has truly understood about her town, her friend, and herself.