A decade after leaving Louisiana amid a swirl of successes and sorrows, Joy Faye Savoy returns to the South. By her side is her scandalous best friend, never far from her mind is her unforgettable mother, and off in the Blue Ridge Mountains somewhere is the heartthrob from her past. While Joy's life in California is filled to overflowing with hearth and home, she has come to Asheville, North Carolina, seeking private atonement during springtime in Appalachia. From F. Scott Fitzgerald's grand old hotel room to a long-ago love, she comes to understand in one last extraordinary day that the past plus the future, with some jelly beans sprinkled in, can add up to peace this side of paradise.