With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect Charles Waterston's life seems in perfect balance. Nothing prepares him for the sudden end to his 10-year marriage - or his unwanted transfer to his firm's New York office. Christmas is approaching when Charlie leaves New York, heading to Vermont to ski. But a sudden snowstorm strands him in a small Massachusetts town. There Charlie meets an elderly widow who offers to rent him her exquisite lakeside chateau. Hidden deep in the woods, it once belonged to a woman who lived there two centuries before named Sarah Ferguson. And from the moment Charlie sets foot inside the chateau, he feels her presence.