The Mermaid Chair plot
A phone that rings in the middle of the night usually doesn't bode well. So is forty-two-year-old Jessie Sullivan. Her mother, who never got over the death of her husband Joe, has hurt herself. Anxious and concerned, Jessie returns to the island of her childhood, off the coast of South Carolina, to care for her mother. There she is attracted to the handsome Thomas, a young Benedictine monk who will soon be taking his vows. But Jessie is happily married and doesn't understand this overwhelming passion.