Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments and a road toward happiness that is hard earned.

Three generations of women are buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at 80, is a force to be reckoned with. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-aged and in an emotionally demanding career. And Liz's beautiful twentysomething daughter, Ashley, has dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future that keeps them all at odds.

Mary Beth, Ashley's dearest friend, tries to have her back, but even she can't talk headstrong Ashley out of a relationship with an ambitious politician who seems slightly too old for her. Actually, Ashley and Mary Beth have yet to launch themselves into solvency. So while they wait for the world to discover them, they placate themselves with a harebrained scheme to make money...and threatens to land them in huge trouble with the authorities.

So where is Clayton, Liz's husband? Ashley desperately needs her father's love and attention, but what kind of a parent can he be to Ashley with one foot in Manhattan and the other one planted in indiscretion? And Liz, who's an expert in the field of troubled domestic life, refuses to acknowledge Ashley's precarious situation. The Lowcountry has endured its share of war and bloodshed like the rest of the South, but this storm season we watch Maisie, Liz, Ashley and Mary Beth deal with challenges that demand they face the truth about themselves.