When an accident causes the loss of a treasured vintage pen, Mary Helen Reynolds relives the summer of 1988 ... Fourteen-year-old Mary Helen wants life to stay the same-small, safe, and protected-but her world starts to unravel when cancer strikes her mother. Mary Helen is sent from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, to St. Simons Island, Georgia, to live with her eccentric artist aunt. The island, Mary Helen soon discovers, is surrounded by the marshes made famous by poet Sidney Lanier. Surprised by her aunt's ways and island culture, all Mary Helen wants to do is return home, but then she meets Ben, whose passion for the island opens her mind to new possibilities. What happens next sends her on a challenging journey of self-discovery. Will Mary Helen embrace the changes in her life, which may lead to something greater than she's ever dreamed, or will she continue to cling to all that's familiar? Whichever she chooses, one thing's for sure-she'll never forget the summer she first saw the Marshes of Glynn.