It is April in Gresham, and Julia and Andrew Phelps have been married for over a year. Three of the children in their blended family attend the Octavia Bartley School of Advanced Learning where Lydia Clark is the schoolmistress. Tall and plain, the thirty-four-year-old teacher is thought to possess a handsome dowry, and is sought by a local man hoping to gain its fortune. At the same time, Jacob Pitney, an archaeologist uncovering ruins at Anwyl, becomes enamored with the writer Miss Rawlins. In an attempt to win her, he hires Lydia to help him understand Miss Rawlins' novelettes. The bashful archaeologist does indeed come to an understanding, but it is hardly what he anticipated! When spring arrives in full, the town of Gresham reawakens to life. Soon more than one unlikely romance blooms among her villagers and readers will be delighted as even a bruised and timid heart is made to feel young and renewed.