At the beginning of this book, Boy Novak lives with her abusive father in Manhattan city. Nothing terribly unusual happens on the day she runs away, at twenty, never to return. She buys a bus ticket to the very last stop on the line and starts a new life in Flax Hills, a town of artisans and craftspeople. Boy has no skills, and ends up working a serious of jobs that introduce her to a strange circle: Webster, a girl obsessed with getting married; Mia, a journalist who will go way too far for a good story; and Arturo, a windowed jewelry maker with a beautiful daughter, Snow. Boy is inexorably drawn to both Arturo and Snow, and the fairy tale cottage they live in. But there are many strange things Boy can't control, and one of them seems to be this: if she settles down with Arturo, she will be the wicked step-mother in the story book of his daughter's life. Does she want that? Can she avoid it?