A warm and intelligent novel about a young teacher who throws herself into the lives of her students in the hopes of forgetting the past, only to find it returning more vividly than ever. When Iris Chisholm arrives in the tiny Scottish Highland community of Green Cairns, she's still in a state of shock--not so much from her husband's untimely death as from the discovery that he'd gambled away all their money and even their home. In addressing the problems of the children at the school where she works, Iris finds distractions from worries. Further distractions come in the shape of a honey-tongued lawyer and a gentle handyman. This is a novel with wit and heart from an author who is quickly rising in the ranks of international women's fiction authors.