Camille is a strong, independent woman with two young daughters she's raising in New Orleans. Her husband Charles is far from a model father (he drinks too much and earns money by dealing drugs), which is why she packs up Dahlia and Josie and sets out for Canada. The goal is to get far enough away from Charles (and the people he does business with) and to make a new life for themselves, but by the time they get to Little Gale (a tiny island off of Maine), winter was setting in and they realized that things were only getting colder and greyer, and they had chosen improper clothes for continuing the journey. So they settled in.

They rented a room from Ben, whose son Matthew was the same age as the girls. One of the girls is immediately smitten with Matthew, but (as fate would have it) Matthew is taken with the other daughter. Camille and Ben feel an attraction for each other, but they want to be sensitive to their children's feelings, so they initially hide their feelings and interactions as much as possible. However, over time, it becomes undeniable, especially once they begin a business partnership.

Camille and Ben open Little Gale Gumbo together capitalizing on Camille's Creole recipes, particularly the gumbo, red beans and rice, bread pudding, and pralines that she's been making for decades. The success of the restaurant helps the family fit in a little better, as the islanders have always been a little suspicious of Camille, Dahlia, Josie, and their Creole ways.

Suddenly, Ben is the victim of a mysterious accident and he is fighting for his life. It seems that Charles was involved, having gained early release from prison. But there are some other aspects to the accident that leave the police chief wondering what actually happened. It doesn't help that one of the daughters used to date the police chief, but broke it off and left him broken-hearted and wondering where things went wrong. And this isn't the only relationship in which one (or both) of the girls are harboring a secret.

This story is simply sublime. Although it was a bit confusing at first since the daughters refer to their father in different ways (so I wasn't sure if they were actually referring to the same person or different people), and I didn't realize that much of the story was told in flashbacks, I soon got used to the way in which the story was told. Once I did, the story itself was gorgeous. The characters are complex and unique, and the sacrifices each one made for the other were heart-breaking.