In the turbulent St. Louis spring, Ben, the second of the elusive Pernoud brothers clan, is working to finish his bridge project and nursing the new reality that his older brother is getting married and leaving him at home to run the business while he spends a pre-honeymoon in Europe. His head turns when a local television reporter, Darcy Platt, is sent out to his brother Adam's estate following a storm to cover the damage done to the property when a tree falls on a historic building.

For her part, Darcy is one of the legendary small town "pretty girls" who has been made paranoid about it over the years. Nursing an abuse she has not shared with anyone else, Ben helps her make a break through as the pair navigates the rituals of courting and trying to get her controlling parents to understand that their pairing is for real.