It's 1962, and twenty-seven-year-old Beth Bettencourt's world is turned upside down when she wakes to hear a man snoring in her house.

She's alone; her parents are in Europe mending their hearts after the unexpected death of Beth's twin sister, Elise. Back at home in Bynum, Georgia, Beth tends to her kindergarten and closely guards her own heart. While beautiful and a beloved member of the community, Beth is an unusual specimen for her time as she nears thirty and remains unmarried.


Beth harbors deep-seated unforgiveness against Elise, who excelled over Beth throughout their childhood and then ran off with Beth's beau after being jilted herself. Not only that, but she took their grandmother's ring, which had been promised to Beth.