Beatrice was three years old when her parents, William and Francis Cummings, tragically died in a car accident. Ruth Singer, Francis’s older sister, was thunderstruck when she heard that she was named guardian of the minor child at the reading of her sister’s will. Being a stay-at-home mom to her three girls for the past ten years, living in a shoebox-sized house, and sacrificing personal wants and needs due to living on one income, Ruth was more than ready to break out of the house and return to the workplace. She finally reached the point where all three of her children would be in school. The thought of reversing in time to take on a three-year-old led to frustration and anger.

Grace Santangelo was innocent, reserved, and obedient. At fifteen, she dutifully assisted in the day-to-day operation of her parents’ boardinghouse in Illinois. Never in her wildest dreams did Grace imagine meeting and falling in love with boarder number 3, Gio Rivia, a handsome Italian immigrant that was eight years her senior.