Clare Verney watched from the airport's arrival lounge as the plane landed and taxied toward the terminal. Single, 42, a successful businesswoman, she was about to take on fulltime guardianship of a trio of children with a troubled past, children she had never before seen or spoken to. Her sister's children, now aged sixteen, fourteen, and four, had been born, reared, and orphaned at a mission station in Africa, shuffled off for a brief stay with a grandparent in England, and sent to live with Clare in an unremarkable Pennsylvania town. Now, seeing them standing in the open door of the plane, Clare sensed an imperceptible bond welding the trio into a compelling unity. Her mind wrestled with questions: What were they like? How would they adjust to a world they had never known? Would they accept her? What did she know about being a foster parent? How was she to cope? The next few months would test her and the children as the trio adapted to a new life. Together they would know agony when Clare's serious injury puts the fate of the youngest child in the balance.