It was Leigh Novak's second chance. She left behind a faithless husband to begin a new life with her young son Jeremy—as a family doctor in a small northern California town. But Hartwood held a bitter welcome. Leigh's first patient, a child, died mysteriously in her office. And soon Leigh was too busy to spend much time with Jeremy. It seemed her only friend was Nora—the woman who took such good care of the town's little children. When Nora started taking care of Jeremy, he stopped getting angry, stopped crying, stopped telling lies....

Nora taught her children to be very, very good. If they were bad, she punished them. And if a child was very bad, Nora made sure he would never cry again....