Prologue and Chapter 1 Summary

Theresa Osborne is a columnist for the Boston Times. Recently divorced, Theresa is having a tough time finding a good man willing to commit to a long term relationship and to a relationship with a woman with a child.

In the prologue, someone throws a bottle off the side of a boat or ship. The author takes this moment to explain how messages in bottles have been used for hundreds of years both to send messages and to track ocean currents. Then he returns to the bottle, telling the reader that it has, by some quirk of currents, ended up on a beach near Chatham, twenty-six days and seven hundred thirty eight miles from where it began its journey.

In chapter one, Theresa Osborne arrives at Cape Cod alone on a cold, December day, returning to the place where...