From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, an emotionally poignant novel about the enduring legacy of first love-and the decisions that haunt us forever.

Sent away at sixteen, Maggie Dawes could think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until she met Bryce Trickett. Bryce showed her how much there was to love about the wind-swept beach town and introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life.

By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. Unexpectedly grounded over Christmas and struggling to come to terms with a medical diagnosis, she finds herself becoming dependent on her young assistant.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she tells him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier--and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.