Willow Tree and Olive Irini Savvides

Enough waterwave taffeta for a lifetime of weddings, always in apricot, with matching shoes and a sugared almond under your pillow so you can dream of the man you love. Olive always seems to be at weddings, christenings or some other family celebrations.
She laughs wildly and counts the restaurant's Wedgewood plates as they hit the wall. But she can't hide her desperate struggle to piece together a shattered sense of trust. Because the family that sings and draws her into the dance failed to protect her once when she needed them.

Half the time Olive is embarrassed by her culture and even hates being Greek. But as her skip friend Kerry tells her, the other half of the time she goes on as if the Greeks invented everything.

Her parents decide that a change of scene will help Olive through her inability to handle school, family, growing up-the whole bit. So they send her on a holiday to Greece. And it's the Greeks' determination to survive, along with their love of poetry and myth, that finally encourage Olive to step out of a past she can no longer face, and take on the future.