A single mother learns that her chronically ill son can communicate with a special dog, and the lessons this dog teaches can shape the future and transform their lives. Dr. Kate Blunt will do anything for her son, Jasper, who has cystic fibrosis... except get him a dog. The daily medical routine that keeps Jasper alive is complicated enough, though her decision runs contrary to her work as the veterinarian in charge of a Cape Cod animal shelter....

Janet Rossi is very smart and unusually attractive, an aide to the governor of Massachusetts, but she suffers from an illness that makes her, as she puts it, "not exactly a good long-term investment." Jake Entwhistle is a few years older, a carpenter and portrait painter, smart and good-looking too, but with a shadow over his romantic history. After meeting by accident, literally, when Janet backs into Jake's antique truck, they begin a love affair...