Anna Russell is a talented painter and single mother. Her daughter, Rachel, is a ten-year-old whose undoubtedly gifted mind is trapped by a form of autism known as Asperger Syndrome. When a car accident leaves Anna in a coma, both their lives—and the lives of all those around them—are changed forever.

Across the Atlantic, David Mortimer receives an unexpected phone call from Anna’s mother. The scientist is stunned to learn that he’s a father. His long-ago affair with Anna was short and intense; when she suddenly returned home to the States, David slipped into a reclusive life of research, haunted by memories of the girl who’d left him without explanation. Now he knows he must break his self-imposed isolation, go to Boston and the woman he’s always loved, meet the child he never knew he had—and perhaps coax them both out of their silence.

But as David attempts to put together the puzzle of Anna’s life as an artist, mother, and daughter, he finds himself involved in a relationship with Anna far more intimate than he expected. Why did she leave him so many years before? Where, as she lies in a coma, is she now? And how is it that he loves this woman even after all these years? When he stumbles across Anna’s mysterious fascination with the rare flowers that were once their shared passion, he and Rachel, their beautiful, sensitive child, may just have discovered how to help Anna find a way back—a road through the mountains.