“Someone looking through the window would have thought the quiet man of Mittenwald was dead in his fireplace chair for how little he stirred. Though his eyes were wide, Carey Alsch seemed not to breathe. The coals smoldered. Smoke was lazy drifting over him in waves—some wafting out the chimney in normal fashion. As if carved from stone, some men are stuck in one place and remain stuck there for the lengths of their lives.”

Carey despised living. And when the fire crackled, he despised himself for not living well.

But when fate—or perhaps a pretty stranger—sweeps him into the company of a large, boisterous family, he is forced to confront the life he has long despised. He must face himself at last or remain stuck forever.