Martha is dying and seeks redemption through six letters to her old college friends.
She ignores her husband and asks her youngest granddaughter Madison to give the letters of confession to Daniel her first husband who she has lost yet never stopped loving.
Madison, the wild haired intelligent loner, meets her grandfather for the first time at Martha's funeral and they forge a strong bond of growing love as they search for the old friends, a trail long gone cold after fifty years.
They are aided by a Polish housekeeper and the new Holmes-Watson partnership is born.
It is a time of the joy of innocent uncertain love, deep friendships and the sadness of impending death.
They unearth a stolen necklace and the sad story of a secret illegal abortion. There is a Polish wedding, and Christmas, new beginnings, divorce and a very lazy cocker spaniel called Bracken.