When Mattie and David Brown set out to farm some hilly wooded acres at the foot of Pine Mountain, they are unmindful of the rumors of haunts and hermits. David's fiddle, Mattie's determination, their three healthy sons make the growing debts unimportant — until one day David is gone. The neighboring Miller family becomes Mattie's center, but it is the hermit Brustein who changes her life. And a reluctant outsider, Sarah Bakeley, who inherits an empty cabin, will have profound influence on Mattie's granddaughter. This is a story of connections, known and unknown, sought and unsought, that shape a person's life and loves and choices.