Going to her grandmother's lake house to help her pack and get ready to move sounds like after-school detention to Hallee. Hallee is going into her junior year. She wants to hang out with her friends for the summer - her last summer of freedom before getting a job. She's expecting boredom and chores, but discovers that her grandmother had a whole other life without her grandfather, which makes Hallee look at her grandmother in a new light.
Hallee is dating her first serious boyfriend, and the bit of trouble they got into was what landed her at the lake house. But she never knew how differently she would look at their relationship and everything that she would learn until she stumbled upon her grandmother's letters from the past.
Jennifer is at the crossroads of her life. As she prepares for her granddaughter's visit, she is realizing things just aren't the same anymore. Life has had so many adventures - being in the Coast Guard, stationed on Okinawa, isolated duty, with twenty-two men and one other female were some of the best years of her life. She married, raised a family, and there were so many good times, but now they seem few and far between. With her husband gone and alone in retirement, she keeps telling herself it's time to move and be closer to family, but is it?