The book opens with a stream of consciousness first-person narration from main character January Andrews as she is driving to her father’s lake house in North Bear Shores, Michigan, a tourist and college town. She’s a self-described hopeless romantic who writes fiction for a living. She describes her hopeless romantic nature as her “fatal flaw,” and this view of the world has both helped and hurt her throughout her life. This worldview began when she was 12 and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. To take their minds off the uncertainty, her dad took them dancing at a steakhouse. This is the moment that January began to put her faith in the power of love.

This outlook helped January build a picture-perfect life by the age of 28, with a serious boyfriend, parents who loved each other, a cute apartment in Queens, NY, and a dream job writing romantic novels. However, this life has crumbled in the last year with the death of her dad, a break-up with her boyfriend (and subsequently, the apartment she shared with him), and the shattering of her image of her parents’ perfect marriage.

The lake house is a secret second home that January’s dad shared with a mistress.