Everyone in Kingswood Heights, Ohio, knows that Corrin McCrae, a stubby little PR director with great legs, chipmunk cheeks, a moderate overbite, and an oddball sense of humor that's often in conflict with her short fuse, is a success. A 42-year-old widow, she's vice president of an advertising and public relations agency and the mother of beautiful, brilliant 16-year-old Shelley, who's headed for a career in medicine. Corrin also is blessed with close friends, especially Tom Fielding, the rector of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, who has a secret only Corrin knows; Barbara Gibson, her college sorority sister; and Rob Haley, a client who becomes a lover. However, when Shelley becomes pregnant, the relationships that have formed Corrin's support structure undergo seismic change. In an odyssey that takes her from Ohio to Maine to Florida, she suffers the greatest tragedy of her life and learns that family ties, whether by blood or affinity, are the ones that last.