Cuba, 1858. Young Tennessee housewife Matilda ”Mattie” Fletcher is grieving the loss of her first child, and her marriage to medical student William has gone cold. Diagnosed with “feminine hysteria,” she travels with her husband to Cuba to spend a convalescent month on a beautiful, sweeping sugarcane plantation called Constancia. The milieu is luxurious and restorative in all the right ways, from its shady tamarind trees to its tidy verandas and quaint country lanes.​

 

But appearances are deceiving. Mattie is not the only troubled guest at Constancia, nor is she the only one whose life has been fractured by hardship and circumstance. Enter Sarah Howe, a free spirit who inspires Mattie to heal from her loss even while terrifying her with a mysterious past: Sarah, it seems, was sent to Constancia in the aftermath of a tragedy far more horrific than Mattie’s own, one involving treachery and possibly murder.​

 

As Mattie and Sarah’s friendship deepens, warm sun and carefree days cannot appease Mattie’s curiosity about Sarah’s stormy past and increasingly obvious mental instability. When Sarah’s husband arrives unannounced and upsets the fragile peace that pervades all corners of Constancia, Mattie finds herself drawn into Sarah’s quest for revenge, and must count the cost of her newfound loyalty. A Wintering in Cuba is a story about awakening, the strength of women’s friendship in an era without agency, and the determination to find healing at any cost.