When Anna is eight years old she witnesses the tragic drowning of her younger sister at the beach.  While her parents frantically search the waves for their child, Anna watches alone from the shore.  Desperate for hope, Anna begins silently communicating with her sister, begging her to resurface. 

Anna's family emotionally breaks down in the years following the drowning.  In her grief and loneliness, Anna develops the belief she can communicate to her dead sister through sign language.

As an adult, Anna makes her living working with hearing impaired children, and she develops a close bond with a deaf foster child she works with, Adrea.  As Anna makes the momentous decision to adopt Adrea, she is driven to face her conflicted desire to hear her daughter speak and she is forced to delve into the connections between Adrea and her own, lost sister.

Anna's journey takes her from New York City to France to the coast of Cape Cod.  When Anna experiences an unexpected and painful loss again, she risks repeating history and becoming lost in her grief. Anna finds she must venture back into her painful and also beautiful history in hopes of finally embracing her future with Adrea.  The Sign for Drowning is a story of loss and healing that explores the frailty of family bonds, the limitations of language and the ephemeral beauty of life.