It's 1927, and Josephine Westley holds a secret beneath her second-hand cloche: her premature twin girls reside in a macabre Coney Island side show. Jo is unsure if they've even survived, and she can't let her beau, Charlie, know the truth about any of this. If he sniffs out her betrayal, Jo will be left with nothing. As her lies pile up around her, Jo grapples not only with what to do for her babies, but also how to help her ailing mother. Her best options are the most unbearable.
Beth Roselli lives a much different life in 2017. Surrounded by the latest neonatal research and state-of-the-art technology, she's a skilled NICU nurse adept at saving the lives of the most delicate newborns. But when it comes to navigating her daughter's disability, Beth flounders. She's not used to failing, and it's too easy to drown in the guilt of her mistakes. Beth looks instead to place blame on a woman she never knew, someone who lived a mysterious existence nearly a century in the past.
By the author of the award-winning novel Matka, Past the Midway is a story of fierce loyalty, the exquisite joys and crippling heartbreak of motherhood, and secrets that echo for generations.