At thirty-one, Ellen Barrett has already won a Pulitzer prize. Sadly, though, her skill as a journalist far surpasses her ability to sort out her troubled past, so she's less than eager to return to picturesque Petoskey, Michigan, for her beloved father's funeral. When she most needs comfort, her husband is distant and her siblings antagonistic -- and the solace an old sweetheart offers is almost too much to resist. In the end, going home to the shores of Little Traverse Bay is an emotional and spiritual journey for Ellen -- a rediscovery of what is truly important and eternal in her life. From the Trade Paperback edition. Will facing her past tear Ellen apart, or teach her what is truly important in her life? Ellen Barrett, 31, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with an uncertain marriage, a forgotten faith, and haunting memories of her picturesque hometown and the love she left behind. The eldest of five siblings, Ellen longs for the time, long ago, when they were happy -- when they were a family. Then tragedy strikes. Now Ellen's beloved father is dead, and she must leave Miami and return to her childhood home on the shores of Little Traverse Bay in Petoskey, Michigan. As she returns to a world that was, an avalanche of memories is unleashed. And so Allen's quest begins -- a quest to make peace with the people who still live there, with the losses and changes that time has wrought, and with the future God has set before her. - Back cover.