Egypt, 1964. The great temple at Abu Simbel must be dismantled and resurrected high above the rising waters of the Aswan Dam. This daunting task is overseen by Avery, a young engineer who, at the same time, is carefully building a life with his new wife, Jean. But not everything can be saved once the floodgates have opened: villages will be deluged, thousands will be exiled from their homes, and graves will be moved. And when Avery and Jean suffer a terrible loss of their own, they begin their separate journeys through the landscape of grief.Weaving historical moments with the quiet intimacy of human lives, The Winter Vaultis the story of a husband and a wife trying to find their way back to each other; of people and nations displaced; and of the myriad means by which we all seek out a place to call home.