It is 1933 inside a sweltering courtroom in Macon, Georgia. Fifteen-year-old Robert sits on a bench awaiting sentencing after being picked up for vagrancy and spending a night in jail. He left his home in Illinois with a neighborhood friend to ride the rails and find work to help their families. The friend turned back, too afraid to face the perils ahead. But going back empty-handed isn’t an option for Robert.

After a tumultuous childhood, Roy Fernsby now runs a quaint London coffee shop that his friends frequent, cycles on Sundays . . . and keeps his distance from romantic relationships. Though Roy’s charming and well-liked, being single suits him—if only because it helps him avoid the sting of abandonment. Besides, Roy likes his life exactly as it is.

Elizabeth is a feisty ninety-year-old widow keeping a secret. Developers have tendered a lucrative offer for her beloved Blue Ridge mountain home in Asheville, North Carolina. She knows her children will pressure her to sell it against her own wishes. But any hope of protecting it clashes with her gnawing awareness of the time she has left.

Thirty-nine was a fantastic year. I was married to the man I loved. I had a body that worked without creaking. My grandma, who raised me, was still healthy, and life was pretty damned good. But as they say, all good things come to an end. One year later, I’m a widow. My joints are starting to ache. Gram is in the nursing home, and dead people think my home is some kind of supernatural bed-and-breakfast. Gluing body parts onto semi-transparent people has become a side job - deceased people I’m not even sure are actually there.

She’s 43 years old…and starting over from scratch. How did this happen? She had it all together. A stable marriage of two decades. Two grown daughters. And now she and her husband, empty nesters, were moving to a beach house. Until he showed up late one night and tore their marriage apart. A secret life. A different woman. Another family. Left alone, she has to begin again. And then her estranged sister and mother get thrown into the mix. When she buys a house on a small South Carolina island, will she learn what life is really about?