There are always secrets in small towns. The unwed mother whose "husband" died in an accident, the alcoholic relative who is an unwanted fixture at holiday gatherings, the steamy affair of a town father. Then there are the secrets that are so cruel they can only be called soul killers. This is the kind of secret Kacy discovers about her birth and all the unfair cruelty it causes. It sends her across country with her adopted son to find peace and a normal quiet life in the small beach town of Wayside, Maine.

For a very brief time she gets her wish and finds herself no longer an outcast as the townspeople welcome her and her son into their midst, but it's a long, fraught journey to the peace and happiness she wants for herself and her son.

Pragmatic deputy sheriff Jeff Lester has a wary dislike of any unattached woman who crosses his path, but he is unexpectedly and strongly drawn to Kacy who has an unusual capacity for empathy and understanding for children not her own. When a series of events force Kacy and Jeff to deal with an abused little girl she adopts, they discover that they have more in common than they thought. While Kacy and Jeff and their families are getting closer, they discover they have to protect two more young people from the cruel bigotry of a small town. Kacy steps in, with Jeff's help, to keep them from becoming outcasts, but their act of kindness sets off a chain of events embroiling them in dirty little secrets, jealousy, bigotry and murder. And Kacy ends up on a bizarre kill list. Wayside isn't the quiet town she thought it was, and the one thing Kacy wants more than anything is threatened.

From the far North West to the coast of Maine, Kacy makes the rough journey, embracing and fighting all the situations and fate, the painful, funny, and bizarre, the odd twists and turns, to finally have what she really wants. A family and a quiet life.