Jess Tate is trying to make a life for herself and her teenage son after her husband's sudden death. Running the family's struggling landscape business in Northern Michigan has been hard work, and her son hasn't been much help. She's managed to get by, learning to run the big equipment herself, but between snowplowing early in the mornings and working her daytime job in town, she often wonders if there will ever be more to life than endless work.

Talented ice sculptor Jake Thompson had fame and fortune in St. Louis, but he's been forced to start over after a disastrous relationship left him embittered and in deeply debt. His sister's remote vacation home in Northern Michigan is the ideal retreat to lick his wounds and rebuild his career in peace and quiet—except a certain feisty redhead and her teenage son have a penchant for disturbing his solitude.

In the snowy winter, Jake and Jess unexpectedly find their lives and attitudes begin to change. Will family involvements and ghosts from the past keep them apart, or are they strong enough to risk rising from the ashes of their lives like the mythical phoenix?