"What is this, some kind of a midlife crisis?" Emma Lakin's brother, Stephen demands when she tells him her plan to give up her teaching job and buy Standish Village, a cottage colony on Cape Cod. Not just any cottage colony, but the one where she and her family stayed every summer when she was a little girl, and more importantly, where she met her "best friend forever," Skip Peterson. But while Emma is convinced that making this purchase with the money her father left her is exactly the change she and her teenage son, Luke, need, there is something a little odd about Standish Village itself. It isn't just that the property has been on the market for quite a while, but also that it has acquired somewhat of a dubious history in the intervening years. Between the real estate agent whose office appears deserted, an old painter who is delighted to work for free, and the lady who leaves blueberry pies in Emma's car, the locals seem a little too good to be true. And then there is Skip, who has slid in and out of Emma's life for as long as she can remember; but where is he now, when she needs him the most.