Kenly, the novel's protagonist, tells her life through a long flashback.
She was a restless teenager raised by an alcoholic father.
During their wandering, they arrive in a small town in rural Canada. There she meets a boy who has been afflicted since birth with a severe illness that disfigures his face and has already marked him with mortality. She is instantly enchanted by him. He lives each day as if it were his last, never complaining about his condition, giving everything of himself to others. He helps her find her place in that insular community; he urges her to accept her father for who he is, teaching her that hope must never die and that true love demands we see beyond appearance.
A bond forms between them—one she will never forget, even after she leaves Canada and builds a family of her own. Above all, she carries with her a secret she has never revealed to anyone.
Laura Nardini, 2004
