Making a fresh start in a new part of the country is challenging, but fate and good fortune lead young single mother Josie Waterhill and her six-year-old daughter to a cozy Midwestern town right on the river. There, Josie can raise Zoe away from the violence of the life she once knew and make a new home in the historic tea house where they've been invited to stay. The tea house seems too good to be true—that is, until Josie's elderly landlord Myra welcomes more guests: journalist Carter O'Brien and his giant rescue dog, Buttercup. Carter is charming, compassionate...and way too curious. His interest in Josie deepens, and he inadvertently stirs up trouble when he uncovers things that she would rather not have known. Ready or not, she has to let go of her painful past so she can create a glorious future.