Phil Baxter was a successful young architect and his wife, Catherine, the vice president of an advertising agency and public relations firm in New York. Their futures could not have been brighter until September 11, 2001, when everything changed. The World Trade Center is destroyed, and with the falling of its towers, so falls all Phil and Cathy hold dear.

They must start fresh. Serendipitously, the night before 9/11, Phil attended a presentation that promised a lifestyle change. Of course, he could never have known change was imminent, but now, he and his wife seek life elsewhere, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. There, they discover a Victorian retreat and resort in desperate need of update.

Together, they create the Grand Lady Victorian Mansion: a place of beauty and peace with an event barn, an equestrian school, a ski lodge, and an adjacent organic farm. Phil and Cathy find a new start amidst the wreckage of their lives, and in so doing, discover new friends–who may need rebuilding themselves.