ella only gets one vacation from her little shop in portland each year. and this year, she'd like to fall in love. jaques, the mysterious frenchman she meets on st. barts, has the same idea. he sees her on the beach and then follows her around saint barts until he finds her again and sits next to her at a seaside bar where he strikes up a conversation. using a french accent, because he's been speaking french for the last six months, he doesn't think he is misleading ella. in fact, he plans to tell her that he is an american. it is all passion, red bikinis, and lots of rum cocktails until his mother calls with news that he must go home. to ella, he simply disappears without a word.little does she know that he did leave a message with the concierge at his hotel, which explained everything. but the man pocketed the money "jaques" gave him and tossed the letter.twenty months later, jack brewster, still heartbroken over the mysterious ella who never called him after he had to leave saint barts in a hurry, decides to talk to the shop owners who need to vacate their shops so that his family's new hospital wing in downtown portland can occupy the same space in honor of his brother who fell off mount hood twenty months earlier.he first visits the little shop named marcella's. but when he gets a look at marcella and the baby in her arms, which is the spitting image of him as a child, his life spins out of control.and when marcella gets a look at the man who walked away from her, the eminent domain lawsuit she is fighting no longer seems like it will be her largest battle.