My name is Nathan Carter. Let me say that even though this story does not concern me - not directly anyway - I feel an obligation to tell it, because it was told to me, and it is the type of story that needs to be told...

So begins this powerful tale of love, loss and redemption, drawing us into the small town of Eden, Vermont, and into the complex lives of two very different men. Nathan Carter is a young man in love with falling in love. A serial monogamist, he flits from woman to woman until, as yet another relationship disintegrates, he leaves his busy Boston lifestyle behind him and drives north to the small town of Eden.

There he meets Wallace Fiske: a man at the end of his life. A man with a story to tell. And as the surly, gruff Wallace starts to tell Nathan his story - the story of Nora, the woman he loved from the moment he first set eyes on her, the story of the man Wallace used to be - the two men become friends. It''s a friendship - and a story - that will change Nathan forever...