Betty, an 84-year-old mother and wife, is finally forced into facing a flaw she dealt with her entire life: her inability to communicate. In the loss of a child, in flirting with affairs, in the midst of a troubled marriage, Betty keeps her own counsel. No one knows her deepest heart, not even her own daughter, Reggie, because such things are not spoken of. As a result, Reggie withdraws further and further from her mother.

Watching Reggie fight with issues of her own, edging ever closer to the precipice of a broken life, Betty comes face to face with the necessity of revealing the pearls and daggers of her own life in hopes of helping her daughter. Because she cannot bear to speak of the cracks in her heart, Betty writes a journal chronicling everything she protected.

In a moment of monumental risk, she hands off the book to Reggie, hoping for salvation for both of them, and their families. In turn, Betty and Reggie give the journal to Reggie's daughter with the admonition to remember the story.

Spanning three generations, A Handful of Pearls is the story of love and family, loss and hope.