Raised by her nurturing father and grandfather, eighteen-year-old Clary has never known the kind of resistance that brings out the best and the worst in people. As the son of a hard-hearted businessman and his unhappy socialite wife, Jem has never known anything else. Besides the connection to a cottage on the St. Clair River, the only thing Clary and Jem have in common is an unusual last name, until the revelation of a family secret begins to redirect the course of their future.

Abandoned by his father as a child, and losing his mother to a drunk driving accident as a young man, Paul Jessup has overcome his own alcohol addiction through the help of his faith, and a wise and caring mentor, Father Carlos. After Paul meets a young woman named McKenna Franks, she and her close-knit family open the eyes of Paul’s lonely heart to see potential he’s never dared to accept for himself before. When an important opportunity leads him away, will he keep the door of his heart open, or will he succumb to a familiar voice from his past instead—Whenever something is gone, it’s gone; when it’s passed, it’s past; when it’s out of your reach, you’ll never reach it.

As Jem and Clary make a decision about their future, Paul is lost in indecision over his own. Clary struggles to maintain her relationship with Paul, while fearing that the reappearance of Jem’s uncle in Brannon will threaten any chance her father might have with Jayne. Through confusion and sorrow, joy and realization, the love of family proves faithful, as the Borderlines face big changes together in this third installment of the Gibraltar series.