Dangling by our fingernails...

Winnie Grant works at a local newspaper in the small town of Spundale, Mich., where she grew up. Her husband was killed in a car crash a year ago and she's living in her hometown, where she has met and begun a close friendship with the local high school chemistry teacher.

She was asked to spread her wings by her encouraging editor, and cover for the woman who usually writes the human interest stories. Reluctant at first, Winnie decides to do a piece on Pelton Manor and the family's contribution to the founding of their city. And it didn't hurt that her first love used to live there. Rob Pelton was Winnie's high school sweetheart, but went away to college and never contacted her since.

An avid bird watcher, Winnie runs into Rob while birding in an old favorite spot of theirs. It's a poignant first meeting after 10 years, but brief and without the explanations she's been waiting for all those years. Rob seems sadly mysterious about the past.

Shortly after her interview with Irene Pelton at the manor, and learning of the recent death of both Rob's brother and his father, Winnie begins to notice a strange man watching, and then following, her. This þ added to the private theories of Rob's wild spirited sister, his adorable great-aunts, and the housekeeper of the manor about the recent deaths þ Winnie becomes an unofficial reporter, sniffing out the story. It seems even the paperboy thinks the manor is haunted.

All this takes place to the background of a rekindling of a 10-year-old flame with the man of her dreams, plus the continuing pursuit of her chemistry teacher friend, who confuses her with his sudden great kisses and unbelievable patience -- a combination she hates to have to hurt by letting him know Rob is back in her life.