Can you resist the depths of the human heart? It is 1958 and seventeen-year-old Landon is revelling in his youth: dating girls and even claiming to have been in love. He is a world apart from shy, reclusive Jamie Sullivan, a Baptist's daughter who carries a bible with her school books, cares for her widowed father, and volunteers at the orphanage. But fate will intervene. Forced to partner up at the school dance, Landon and Jamie embark on a journey of earth-shattering love and agonizing loss far beyond their years. In the months that follow, Landon discovers the true depths of the human heart, and takes a decision that is so stunning it will lead him irrevocably down the road to manhood . . .