It's time for Annie to put grief behind her and get on with her life. What better way than to go to the State Fair? That innocent first step leads her into a confusing series of events in which she attempts to revive an old love, keep her eighty-year-old cousin out of trouble, finish a quilt left to her by a beloved aunt, and oh, yes, support a new friend suspected of killing her husband. Cousin Sam may be old, but he's not dead yet. His sudden love affair with a brand-new widow shows Annie that it's never too late to love, even though it might be safer not to try to relive the past.

The disparate bits of Annie's life slowly come together, as Magda teaches her how to put pieces of fabric together into a pleasing quilt. While she watches Sam and Magda fall in love, she finds herself wondering if she might find a future with Dan, a handsome fireman. But before she can look too far ahead, there's the quilt show to get through. And that's a whole different complication.