Sylvia has lost two husbands: one to sudden death, a second to divorce. She has come home from dynamic work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a dull office job in Calgary, Canada. Despite family efforts to cheer her, she experiences herself as lost, and still mourns her first husband. She begins to watch a handsome young stranger next door and gradually he becomes an obsession - one that intensifies when he responds to her. But though the obsession opens Sylvia to re-experiencing love, it also proves disappointing. She learns she must create a new life, one in which she meets and interacts with new friends and neighbors, and remembers to pray for guidance. Sylvia no longer watches life from behind a glass window.