Anne Marie Roche wants to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, her lifea (TM)s not what shea (TM)d expected a " shea (TM)s childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattlea (TM)s Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, therea (TM)s a feeling of emptiness. On Valentinea (TM)s Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebratea ]what? Hope, possibility, the future. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did. Anne Mariea (TM)s list starts with: Find one good thing about life. It includes learning to knit, doing good for someone else, falling in love again. She begins to act on her wishes, and when she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life. Ita (TM)s a relationship that becomes far more involving than Anne Marie intended. It also becomes far more important than she ever imagined. As Ellen helps Anne Marie complete her list of twenty wishes, they both learn that wishes can come true a " but not necessarily in the way you expect.