Jean Marie Ellis grew up in a small town in western New York and often made visits to her Aunt Dot’s café in Dream Harbor. By the time Jeanie reaches young adulthood, she tires of small towns and moves to Boston for college where she studies business. She gets an administrative assistant job at a financial firm straight out of college and is soon promoted to the assistant of the CEO. Over the next seven years, the job becomes demanding enough to take over her life, and Jeanie finds herself always putting her professional life before her own needs, making little time for any kind of relationship. The day she discovers her boss at his desk, dead from a stress-induced heart attack, provides the catalyst for Jeanie’s decision to change her life.

Jeanie’s belief that she needs to change her life to avoid ending up like her boss Marvin provides the narrative engine for her growth as a character. Her Aunt Dot’s decision to retire and let Jeanie run The Pumpkin Spice Café provides her with the perfect opportunity to start fresh and begin her arc that sees her move from insecurity and isolation to self-acceptance and connection.