Award-winning novelist Lynne Hugo returns listeners to the beloved shores and shallows of outer Cape Cod Bay in a riveting drama teeming with life and human truth.

Caroline Marcum thought she'd put the great mistake of her life behind her when she left Wellfleet, but is forced to face it when she returns to her childhood home on the bay to care for her dying mother. Ridley Neal thought he'd put his past--and his prison term--behind him when he returned home to take over his father's oyster and clam farm in the harbor. Casual acquaintances long ago, they connect again during a fierce nor'easter. But their suspicions are soon raised when a lawsuit threatens Rid's livelihood, and a chance encounter with the woman Caroline most wronged results in threats and vandalism. Each burdened with separate guilts and struggling with mistrust of the other, can Caroline and Rid set aside their fears and take a chance on the possibility of forgiveness and love?

Inspired by a 1996 lawsuit, this 10th anniversary edition includes an Afterword with an update on the 2024 status of that lawsuit. A Matter Of Mercy takes listeners deep into a life struggle for survival for oyster and clam farmers on the seashell-strewn shallows shallows of Cape Cod bay as Caroline and Rid battle over whether we ever find our real homes in the places and with the people we meant to leave behind.