With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect Charles Waterston''s life seems in perfect balance. Nothing in his comfortable existence prepares him for the sudden end to his ten-year marriage - or his unwanted transfer to his firm''s New York office. With nothing left to lose, Charlie takes a leave of absence from his job to drive through New England, hoping to make peace with himself. Christmas is approaching when Charlie leaves New York, heading to Vermont to ski. But a sudden, blinding snowstorm strands him in a small Massachusetts town. There, as if by chance, Charlie meets an elderly widow who offers to rent him her most precious possession: a remote, exquisite lakeside chateau. Hidden deep in the woods, it once belonged to a woman who lived and died there two centuries before. Her name was Sarah Ferguson. And from the moment Charlie sets foot inside the chateau''s graceful depths, he feels her presence, and longs to know more about the life she led. It is
