From the creator of Anne of Green Gables, get ready to be swept away by this tale of true love against all odds.

Twenty-nine-year-old Valancy Stirling is unmarried and still lives at home with her mother. Her day-to-day life seems dull compared to her favorite books by John Forster and her fantasies of the "Blue Castle." When she receives a devastating diagnosis and is only given one year to live, Valancy escapes from her family to make the most of the time she has left.

Valancy moves in with an old friend, Cissy Gay, who is also gravely ill. Everyone else in the town had abandoned Cissy because she had a child out of wedlock. But Barney Snaith, who understands what it's like to be an outcast, still comes to visit. Although rumored to be a dangerous criminal and even the father of Cissy's illegitimate child, Barney is simply a friend of the family. He also becomes Valancy's romantic interest.

After Cissy's death, Valancy does not want to stay at Cissy's house with her alcoholic father, but she doesn't want to return home to her own family either. Instead, she proposes to Barney, and they move back to his hometown on a remote island. The quiet woods remind her of the setting of John Forster's books and the "Blue Castle" she always dreamed of. But Valency knows she is on borrowed time. One day, her shoe gets caught in the train tracks and she sees the train speeding towards her...but is this the end of her life, or just the beginning?