"It was a hot, rainy summer evening when Gideon's enigmatic wife, Ryan Mira, with painted lips and her hair gathered up in a single clip, went out to get a pack of cigarettes at a cafe around the corner and never returned." "One year later no trace of her has been found.".

"Now Gideon sits down to open a suitcase she left behind. Hoping to put his wife to rest at last and move on with his life, he discovers that she remains very much alive inside the cracked seams of the suitcase, which is full of childhood postcards, letters, photographs, and scraps of paper.".

"Instead of assuming the role of widower, Gideon renews the promise he made to her seven years ago on the eve of their marriage: to be faithful to her until the end. So what was intended as a liberation becomes a pact more powerful than death, more intense than love, more implacable than fidelity."--BOOK JACKET.