On a dreary spring day in Brooklyn, Lottie and Rose spot an ad on their children's preschool bulletin board: Old, pretty cottage to rent on a small island. Springwater, blueberries, sea glass. August. Smitten, they decide to take the place and find two others to share the rent. Arriving on the island, they are transformed by the salt air and breathtaking views. And by the late-August blue moon, real life has fallen away. They open up to one another and to the possibilities of quite different lives. Change can't be that hard, can it?

Four women struggling with loss, disappointment and overwork rent a small summer cottage in Maine, where they find wholeness in regional comforts while sharing their respective stories and rediscovering their passions.

It's a rainy summer in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when two unhappily married women, Lottie Wilkinson and Rose Arbuthnot, spot a tattered ad on their children's preschool bulletin board. Neither can afford it, but they are smitten. To share expenses, they find two companions: Caroline Dester, the exquisite darling of the independent movie scene, and elderly Beverly Fisher, who is recovering from heartbreaking loss. Transformed by the refreshing summer breezes, steamed lobsters, and cocktail hours on the wrap-around porch, the unlikely quartet gradually begin to open up to one another, and ultimately rediscover their capacity to love and be loved.