Emma is a protagonist of this novel. Emma was born Emily Ruth Peel to a parish priest and his wife. Emma’s mother died a few days after her birth, sending her father into a depression that led him to join the military and have alcoholism. He died from heart failure related to his alcoholism when Emma was only a teenager, leaving her an orphan and dependent on her maternal grandmother until she entered university. As Emma reached adulthood, she found herself in a situation where she could make good friends for the first time. As a child, she and her father moved around so much that she couldn’t make friends that would last, so her experiences at university went deeper than just gaining an education.

Emma struggles with relationships because she lost her parents at a young age. She finds good friends and holds on to one in particular, Jill, even after she leaves university due to the birth of her first child, Charlie. But when she meets Leo, she holds on too tight and worries that telling him the truth about her past will make him view her differently. She doesn’t want to lose him because of her experience with postpartum psychosis and her choice to give up her child.