Years after their high school romance ended in a very publicly humiliating way, Verna and Marc meet again at their island home...unexpectedly, at least for Verna.
She has been mostly avoiding coming back, in remembering her exposure to the huge tide of gossip from back then. However, her brother Ryan is getting married, and he has asked her to help with the wedding, and also to take the opportunity to come home and face the past.
So, she returns, and the reunion of sorts with Marc takes place at the local university's board meeting, where Verna, while making a guest presentation, runs into some malicious trouble, and is rescued by him. On the one hand, she is grateful for the help, while on the other wishes she could have done without it, being that Marc had abandoned her to the brunt of the scandal regarding their high school relationship...
However, they are now different people, and now have other challenges. Marc's association with the university's board has come about due to a strange quest set to one prominent member of the community by another, both of whom are strong proponents for the environment, and he, as a landscaper earning a favorable reputation for his work, has been enlisted to solve it. Verna, on her end, has a puzzle of her own that has come up at the finance and accounting company where she works and for which she is tenacious about finding answers, as it involves a past rival for Marc's affections, a bold and sassy decorator who seems bent on working Verna’s past into her present in a way that will do the least good...
Still, as Marc and Verna each move toward achieving their separate goals, the couple find themselves on a shared, daring journey of not only discovery, but of a way back to each other.