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Vanessa Barton steps onto Bennett's Island for the first time as if she is stepping into a prison cell. She feels trapped by her marriage, she carries the emotional shackles of a childhood spent as a ward of the state, and she wants nothing to do with the island community. A chance encounter with Owen Bennett sparks off an attraction that brings Vanessa to life, as she discovers something real that eclipses the fantasies of the novels she reads. Owen leads her on a path of self-discovery that forces her to confront long buried feelings and begin healing old emotional scars. Island life shakes Vanessa out of her self-pity but when misfortune knocks once again at her door, she must decide once and for all whether to succumb to the fugue of her earlier days or whether to seize her independence and happiness.