Best-selling author Anne Siddons returns to tell the story of Nora Findlay, a free-thinking young woman who turns the small town of Bazaar, Georgia, on its ear one summer in 1961. Thirteen-year-old Peyton's mother died when she was born and although her widower father assures her it wasn't her fault, Peyton believes it really was. When her mother's younger cousin Nora comes to Bazaar, Peyton isn't pleased by the intrusion. But Nora has a certain something about her - her very presence seems to revitalize the entire household; even Peyton's father is in better spirits. But something is troubling Nora deeply. Nora always laughs it off. It has to be something from her past that's bothering her, something she is running way from. When the shocking truth comes to light, it stuns the residents of their small segregated town. It also teaches Peyton the enormous cost of loving - and the necessity of doing it anyway.