Gus Loring has been wandering the country, going from job to job, for several years in an attempt to escape his memories. While delivering dry cleaning, he visits Whiterock, Oregon and meets some of the locals, including Sally Carruthers. Sally has given up her business in costume designing to return to Whiterock and care for her dying mother. She stays, after her mother's death, to care for her father when he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Soon Gus is living in Whiterock and working in a garage. When the owner wants to retire, he asks Gus to buy him out. Gus agrees, but in his mind, he has no intention of staying there, as the memories are still with him and he knows that he'll move on when they get too bad.

Soon he and Sally enter into an affair, which the whole town knows about and seems to approve of. Strange things are beginning to happen to the town. A landmark statue is repaired, the bandstand in the park is repaired and repainted and the abandoned stores on Main Street are suddenly looking less rundown. But there's no explanation of how these things are being done.

Gus continues to deny to himself that there is anything lasting going on between him and Sally. When Sally tells him that she loves him, he decides to leave, now. But can he? Throughout the entire story there is an "alien" voice that keeps cropping up, to the reader only, and when Gus tries to leave, something seems to want him to stay.

This is one of the most unusual and entertaining stories that I've read in years. The characters are so real that they could be anyone in your own life. I grew up in a small town, and as it died we saw the same results as are described on the story. Unfortunately, we didn't have an "alien voice" to help. This author has such descriptive abilities that the reader feels the emotions of the characters and the ending was so unexpected that it really gave me goosebumps. Made me rethink living in small towns.

I'll be recommending this book to several of my friends and looking for more by Ms. Glad. This is the first that I've read by her but believe me, it won't be the last.