Amanda Conroy a very young and naieve woman appears in the third novel of the 'Rachel O'Neill" series. Amanda's husband of seven years, they married when they were sixteen, disappears on Christmas Day leaving her penniless in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas in a house trailer without a car and no means to support herself. She's never worked and doesn't have any skills.
Amanda's married sister comes to the rescue, whisking her away to California to live in a new sprawling riverside home in the San Joaquin Valley - a far cry from the poor existence the sisters experienced in the Arkansas hill country as they were growing up in their grandmother's care.
Amanda's dream is to one day holiday in a town called Bruges that she read about in a travel magazine at the doctor's office. Bruges, Belgium - where lacemaking, chocolate, waffles, and medieval quaintness abound. It is a fairy tale to her. But as a waitress in Bakersfield CA she saves her money till the trip becomes a possibility. Stalling the wealthy CA rancher who frequents the restaurant where she works and has asked her to marry him, off she goes, by herself to Belgium. It's in Bruges where she meets writer Rachel O'Neill and they become part of each other's lives.
Now Amanda must decide what she wants most - to stay in Bruges and create an independent life for herself in Belgium without the restraints put on her in the past, or go back to California to the man who seems to adore her and the mystery of her missing husband has not been solved.