Samuel seemed to understand when Michelle could only have one child, but nineteen years later he leaves her for a younger woman with three children under five. Devastated, she remembers Christmas holidays with her grandparents in the far north of New Zealand, and buys an old trading post in the Bay of Islands.
Her sister, fresh from her own tragedy in Italy, soon joins her, but at first the mammoth task of renovating the elderly building seems impossible. Then her farming neighbours recommend Hamish, the sheep ferry man and sometimes renovator.
Can modern materials be made to fit 1882 measurements? Will her growing feelings for Hamish be reciprocated? Can she help the talented artist in the next bay who is recovering from a mental breakdown? Will she be able to make a new life for herself in the Bay of Islands?
A detailed and realistic story in the clean and wholesome genre, a great contemporary read about new beginnings.