A deserted bungalow on a remote and romantic island during World War II is the setting for Jio's lovely story of young nurse Anne Calloway and Westry, the intriguing and mysterious soldier that captures her heart. Anne decides to postpone her elaborate wedding to sweet but boring banker Gerard Godfrey to sign up for a year's stint as a nurse in Bora Bora with her headstrong best friend Kitty. Her expectation is that she will find adventure, self-actualization, and peace of mind in Bora-Bora. Instead, she finds love with Westry. They discover an abandoned artist's cabin (the artist is eventually identified as Paul Gaugin) near the beach, a cabin that becomes both their sanctuary and a place of violence when Anne witnesses a horrifying murder on the beach.
We realize at the beginning of the novel that when Anne returns from the war she does marry Gerard and has lived a happy, fulfilled life with him. She is an elderly widow as the story begins in contemporary times, still wondering what became of Westry. As in Morning Glory, Jio provides the reader with some twists and turns that, while perhaps just a little bit cliche, keep you wanting to read more.
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