Romance author Jacob Churcher hasn't been home for almost twenty years, since his mentally ill mother kicked him out of the house at sixteen. A lawyer calls to inform him that his estranged mother has passed away and left her house to him; Jacob returns not just to settle the estate but to try and reconcile with the past and the pain and abuse he experienced as a child. But Jacob's mother had become a hoarder, and as he excavates through two decades' worth of clutter, he uncovers a diary left by someone named Noel, a young woman, who stayed with Jacob's family during her pregnancy. The arrival of Rachel, a woman looking for the mother who put her up for adoption thirty years before, give the two a chance to rewrite their futures. -- adapted from back cover