Mr. Arcilla, the language teacher at an all-girls boarding school, is found drowned. Young and handsome, the object of much fantasy and fascination, he was adored by his students. For Lilith and Romy, Evie and Claire, Nellie and Grace, he was their first love, and their first true loss. In this collection of short stories following the girls over the course of sixty years, from their first semester at boarding school to the twilight of their lives, Kate McQuade explores the ripple effect of one transformative moment on six lives, witnessed at a different point in each girl's future.