An unforgettable story of survival...and of the extraordinary acts of faith and courage that bring - and keep - families together...On a wind-swept summer day, as the fog rolls across the San Francisco coastline, a solitary figure walks down the beach, a dog at her side. At eleven, Pip Mackenzie's young life has already been touched by tragedy; nine months before, a terrible accident plunged her mother Ophelie into inconsolable grief. But on this chilly July afternoon, Pip meets artist Matt Bowles, who offers to teach the girl to draw - and can't help but notice her beautiful, lonely mother. Matt Bowles senses something magical about Pip, who reminds him of his own daughter at that age, before a bitter divorce tore his family apart and swept his children halfway across the world. At first, Ophelie is thrown off-balance by her daughter's new companion - until she realizes how much joy he is bringing into their lives, so that mother and daughter can slowly begin to heal, to laugh again, to rediscover what ...