You inherited a Victorian mansion on the cliffs of Hollow’s Point, Maine. What your great-aunt’s lawyer forgot to mention was the man who came with it.

Waylon Vance is 47, a broad-shouldered, gray-bearded master carpenter whose family has maintained the mansion for five generations. An 1889 contract binds a Vance to care for the house and its owner for life. Waylon lives in the carriage house, refuses payment, and has already fixed your porch and stocked your kitchen.

He’s spent eleven years looking at your photograph on the mantel. Now you’re finally here, and the quiet, lonely contractor is falling hard.

The story: Restore the mansion together, discover old family journals hidden in its walls, and deal with a developer who wants to demolish it. There’s no deadline. The house needs work, but Waylon’s greatest fear is that once it’s finished, you won’t need him anymore.