When thirty-eight-year-old Nick Sullivan agrees to deliver hot chocolate to the new English professor at the local University, he has no way of knowing a simple good deed will forever change his life. After losing his wife and daughter in an automobile accident three years earlier, Nick believes his wounds are too deep to heal, so he withdraws to the safety of the East Tennessee mountains where he plans to live the rest of his life in solitude. There, he purchases a small farm where he spends his days riding horses and night battling the ghosts of his past. A thousand miles away, an ambitious, thirty-three-year-old English professor named Eve Gentry has just accepted a job that will take her from her home in Texas to a small town in Tennessee. After a recent divorce to the only man she's ever loved, Eve is eager for a fresh start and the opportunity to prove to herself, her family, and her ex that she can make it on her own. Looking to put down roots, Eve searches for a place she can call home. One evening, while grading midterms, she discovers a flyer for a property that appears too good to be true. When her realtor takes her to see it, she immediately falls in love with the place and purchases it. Little does she know her new neighbor is the same man who she hasn't been able to get out of her mind since he delivered hot chocolate to her the week before.