After Paul Stoneheart's death, Jamie finds a stack of letters that seem to have been read over and over again. The sender is Paul's mother, whom Paul never talked about. Under the impression that she is dead, Jamie reads the letters. However, during a business party, Jamie accidentally discovers that Paul's mother is alive, and that she still lives in the house where Paul grew up. Though Jamie does not understand the reasons for their falling out, Jamie writes to Mrs. Stoneheart to let her know about her son’s death. She responds, and they establish an epistolary relationship. We only read the letters written by Jamie, but, thanks, to these one-sided missives, we start to discover the dark events that drove a wedge between mother and son.