Emmalyn Ross shares something in common with spouses of the deployed or those whose work takes them on the road for long stretches. She’s trying to figure out how to sustain a marriage with a man who’s never home. He won’t be home until the end of his sentence, if then. His actions stole her heart’s desire and gave their relationship a court-mandated five-year time-out. What didn’t fall apart the night he was indicted fell apart in the intervening years. Now, on a self-imposed exile to beautiful but remote Madeline Island—one of the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior—Emmalyn has a handful of months left to figure out if and how they can ever be a couple again. And his silence isn’t helping.

The island hunting cottage they’d purchased on a whim when life made sense isn’t fit for habitation. But it’s all she has. Restoring it may put a roof over her head, but a home needs more than a roof and walls. As Emmalyn and the cottage grow stronger, they feel emptier. Is it possible hope lost her address?