It happened as car accidents often do, violently and without warning. In a flash of steel and glass, lives are lost, dreams shattered, and families forever changed. That's how it happens for Jean Wright. In the days that follow, as neighbors stop by with plates of food and words of comfort, Jean knows one thing for certain: her carefully ordered world will never be the same. For there is the surviving child to think about now - and Jean must put aside her grief to take in one-year-old Guin, who has no one else to raise her. But as Guin grows up into a shy, dreamy girl, their life together is fraught with conflict. When Guin defies the only mother she's ever known by striking out on her own - eloping with a man far below her social standing - their relationship seems irreparably damaged. It is only when Guin has a child of her own, a little girl who is so very like Jean in personality, that events come full circle...and she finds that the qualities that drive you apart can also draw you together.