What are the secrets and to whom do they relate?

There are bee quotations throughout the novel that Kidd uses as metaphors for Lily's life. In Chapter one, for example, Kidd notes that if a queen is taken from her hive, there is a space missing; there is a state of "motherlessness." Similarly a metaphor can be drawn to Lily's life with the absence of her own mother. In Chapter 8 Kidd notes that a bee without her sisters eventually dies. The immense connection between August, June and May comes into play here, especially with May's intense sense of empathy. If her sisters are in danger, May retreats from the world. All the characters have secret lives and like the bees they are each unique.