Amanda and her daughter Clover live in a close-knit community of expats on Grand Cayman Island, an idyllic place to all appearances. But the comfortable island life can become stifling in hard times. As Clover falls for her first love, and allows her heart to chart her life’s course, Amanda realizes that she has fallen out of love with Clover’s father, and that her carefully mapped-out future is actually unknown territory. Through the years, mother and daughter try to navigate their chosen paths, as they are each torn between the dreams they cherish and the reality they face.

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, and the Corduroy Mansions series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served with many national and international organizations concerned with bioethics. He lives in Scotland.