Alex Foster's life is exactly as she wants it. She's quit her job as an English teacher and has decided to hole up in her newly acquired lake house for the summer to try her hand at writing a novel. She has close friends; she has her dog; she plays volleyball. She is content.

Jennifer Wainwright is a wealthy young suburbanite whose life is exactly as she expected it would be. She's married to her high school sweetheart, who is about to inherit his father's law firm. She has friends. And she has the whole summer to work on decorating the new house on the lake she and her husband have just purchased as their summer home. She is content.

A chance meeting over a runaway pooch is the start of a journey for each woman. Over the course of one unbelievable summer set on the beautiful shores of Canandaigua Lake in Upstate New York, these two women will teach one another, learn from one another, question their own beliefs and expectations, and unwittingly fall in love.