Grace, caught up in an affair, becomes one of the “girls who went away” to have a baby in secret. June, guilt-ridden for exposing Grace’s pregnancy, makes an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile Ed Mae Johnson, an African-American care worker in a New Orleans orphanage, is drastically impacted by Grace’s choices.

As the years go by, their lives intersect in ways that reflect the unpredictable flights of birds diverted from their unexpected journey—and the consolations of imperfect return.