Circumstance brought three disparate women to a Pennsylvania boardinghouse where three square meals and a sagging bed is the most any of them can look forward to. But friendship will take them on a startling journey to a rundown North carolina farmhouse where the unexpected suddenly seems not only welcome, but delightfully promising.

For Hannah, marriage has never meant happily ever after. Having fled an abusive husband when her daughters were young, she's never had reason to marry again...until now. Her business partner, Max, has proposed because he doesn't want her to be taxed on his estate. Hannah is initially reluctant to enter such an arrangement but logic dictates that she accept. Then, after the wedding, she finds herself spending more time over at Max's and is shocked...

"Widowed Amelia always portrayed her marriage to Thomas Declose as complete perfection. They lived in Paris and entertained widely for a glittering crowd; only the tragic loss of their little girl marred what appeared an ideal existence. So when Miriam Smith arrives with her daughter Sadie on Amelia's doorstep in a snowstorm, claiming to be the illegitimate child of the long-dead Thomas, Amelia reacts with shock and fury. Could Thomas possibly have...

Interwoven with the continued stories of Grace, Amelia, and their friends in Covington, is the tale of Hannah and Max, now happily married and tending the parkland they saved from developers. Their peace is shattered when Max's estranged son, Zachary, returns from India with his pregnant wife, Sarina. Will this homecoming cause more heartache than joy?

The continuing stories of Hannah, Amelia, and Grace in the small town of Covington.

This is a story about three generations of women who find their way past old hurts and losses to understanding, forgiveness, and love. Winifred Parker climbed out of poverty by marrying into one of Philadelphia's oldest, wealthiest families. Now 72 years old, she always felt that her son married beneath him and has had no contact with her daughter-in-law, Zoe, since her son was killed in Korea. Zoe lives alone on twenty-eight acres of rural Carolina...