Eleanor Cartwright has everything that money can buy, but no laughter to fill her empty home and no children to fill her empty heart. With her brother's new wife running the bazaar, caring for the parish, and chasing after her own children, there is little for Eleanor to do but sit at home and nurse her broken heart. When a terrible disease strikes the town, Eleanor jumps at the chance to help her ill neighbors, not caring about the risk to her own health and not realizing the risk to her heart. But when people start to die, Eleanor must decide if she has the courage and strength to open her home, and her heart, to one suffering even more than herself.