1996 is the year that changes everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at 16 to live with an aunt she barely knows in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she can think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until her aunt introduces her to Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point Academy, Bryce gradually shows her how much there is to love about the wind-swept beach town—and introduces her to photography, a passion that will define the rest of her life . . . as will Bryce. By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year, she finds herself unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she begins growing closer to him. 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.