Seattle, 1933. A single mother, Vera Ray, goes to bed and kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, on a night shift at a local hotel where she works as a maid. She returns and discovers that the May blizzard covered the city with snow, and her boy has disappeared. On the frozen street, Vera finds his favorite teddy bear, and the snow sweeps away any traces of her child.

Seattle, 2010. Reporter Claire Aldridge is commissioned to write about the May Day "blackberry winter" (late spring cold). She knows about her double from the past and about the abduction, which has remained unsolved, and swears to find the truth. It turns out that there are many unexpected parallels in the lives of these two women.