<p>Beth Kincaid left her hot temper and unhappy childhood behind and created a life in the city free from untidy emotionalism, but even a tidy life has danger, especially when it falls apart. In the midst of personal disasters, Beth is called back to her hometown of Preston, a small town in southwestern Virginia, to settle her guardian&#39;s estate. There, she runs smack into the mess she&#39;d left behind a decade earlier: her alcoholic father, the long-ago sweetheart, Michael, and the poor opinion of almost everyone in town. As she sorts through her guardian&#39;s possessions, Beth discovers that the woman who saved her and raised her had secrets, and the truths revealed begin to chip away at her self-imposed control. Michael is warmly attentive and Stephen, her ex-fianc&eacute;, follows her to Preston to win her back, but it is the man she doesn&#39;t know who could forever end Beth&#39;s chance to build a better, truer life.</p>