Olivia was devastated when her wealthy ex-husband won custody of eight-year-old Emma and moved the girl across the country before putting her into an exclusive boarding school. Seven years later, after the tragic death of her father, a newly impoverished Emma returns to Idaho to live in Bethlehem Springs with the mother she no longer knows. Olivia struggles to reconnect with her daughter, and Emma misses the trappings of wealth and the life shes known.
Unbeknownst to Olivia, Emmas paternal grandfather, Peter Ward—a man who was estranged from his son for twenty years—has hired local investigator Tyler Murphy to discover if Emma should remain in her mothers custody. Tyler finds ways to get to know Olivia and Emma—chance meetings, church, through community involvement—and at the same time he finds himself falling for Olivia. He hopes that he can trust she is everything she seems to be. But having come up through the foster care system, he knows all too well that what looks good on the surface may not be the whole truth. He owes it to Emma, if not to his client, to be sure.
Meanwhile, Emma joins a local theater troupe and finds herself in possession of a diary from the 1930s. After reading the entries—entries that put her own struggles and losses into perspective—she is determined to learn more about the author of the diary.
Olivia, who has kept her heart protected around men for so many years, is startled to realize that shes fallen in love with Tyler. But when the truth comes out about Tylers employer, can love overcome deception, even if the intent behind it was good?