Effie has had her fair share of lovers and husbands, including the Gillis cousins, who have been a source of as much guilt as joy. But she's more or less given up on being swept away by love, until, in a chance encounter, she meets a person who might very well be the perfect man. Even Effie, as wise as any woman can be to the ways of men, is unprepared for the maelstrom her new love affair will unleash.