All her life, Lisa MacLean has been doing the right thing. It's just a matter of time before she has to pay the price.

Brilliant and successful, beloved by her patients, Dr. Lisa MacLean finds herself alone at thirty-six, spouseless and childless in an empty house in Northern California. Reeling from a bizarre lawsuit and a recent breakup, Lisa drifts through work at a drafty San Francisco hospital, visits old friends in the pot farms and vineyards of Mendocino, and drinks herself to sleep in the swirling fog of Marin County.

Redemption comes when Lisa opens her heart and assembles an unexpected and eclectic "family" an orphaned six-year old girl; a mangy dog abandoned by her owner; and a nameless busboy who seduces Lisa with globetrotting stories. Reconnecting with her hippie backwoods roots and her ailing father, Lisa watches the odd pieces of her life fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, forming a picture she never expected.