Laurel Bancroft has lived for years as a recluse, isolating herself from a town that has branded her a murderer.But now, convinced people have finally forgotten, she is ready to resume her life. Then Laurel meets Alec Stanton. Hired to help redesign her garden, Alec is a stranger with a mysterious past. Though more than ten years younger, Alec is exactly what Laurel needs: intelligent, talented, passionate.But as their relationship grows, so does a dangerous threat against them. Someone wants Laurel to return to her seclusion and give up her younger lover-someone who hasn't forgotten that night so many years ago.