When Felicity Jeffries' husband of twenty-eight years dies of a heart attack, it releases her, at last, from a loveless marriage. But when her adult children begin to ask questions that threaten to reveal family secrets Felicity has kept for years, she seeks refuge at her family cottage, hoping the much-needed tranquility will bring her peace of mind.
Ben Pierce is a man racked with guilt over spending a decade away from his daughter. For the past ten years, his work has taken him to war-torn communities and the sites of natural disasters where he and his company rebuild homes and entire villages. Now he wants to rekindle the relationship he lost with his daughter, but will she want to see the father she thinks abandoned her all those years ago?
When Felicity meets Ben, her new neighbour at the cottage on Ril Lake, the two form something more than friendship bound by their mutual need to come to terms with their pasts. Together they unpack the baggage of their lives, agreeing to pass no judgement, offer no sage words of advice, but only to listen or lend a shoulder to cry on.
As their friendship grows, so does their desire to be something more to one another, but her children are not as accepting as she'd hoped. Soon, her conflicting emotions about how her children will react to her new relationship take a back seat to the old family secrets that refuse to be ignored. Can Felicity reveal just enough to answer her children's questions without tarnishing their image of their father? What will they say when they learn the identity of the fourth beneficiary in his will? And can Felicity and Ben's new relationship survive the last and most crucial of Felicity's family secrets?
