Plot Synopsis

From the novel by Ann Patchett. An unhappy pregnant woman abandons her husband in California and runs off to a remote Kentucky home for unwed mothers run by nuns. Soon, the home's amiable handyman is proposing marriage, unaware she is already wed. She marries him anyway, has the baby, and a few years later leaves to live alone in a nearby cottage. When her first husband finds her 15 years latter, she takes off again, afraid to face the truth of her actions. She eventually returns to her loved ones.