Publisher's Synopsis
Tino and Rachel, all their lives, have lived among the few hundred residents in the little sea side borough of Cape May Point, New Jersey, where their families go back a hundred years, yet they had never met one another. In the late summer of 1974 Rachel, a recent widow at 43 years old, falls head over heels for Tino, a 50 year old unmarried carpenter. They agree to a sexual affair that reshapes their worldview and their understanding of themselves.
Rachel's mother died giving birth to her. Rachel lived with and served as helper to her grandfather and father, both religious ministers, and to the minister her father chose for her to marry at 19 years old. After two years of perfunctory and fruitless sexual intercourse, her husband rejected Rachel as barren and retreated to his own bedroom.
When Tino, a fifty year old master carpenter working in his family's century old tradition of preserving the historical Gingerbread style of architecture in the Cape May, New Jersey area, arrives at Rachel's old house to repair antique windows, she is overwhelmed by her attraction to him. For two months, their liaison awakens Rachel's sexual power and ends Tino's lonesomeness.
But Rachel's mid-life, unexpected pregnancy separates them and triggers their life changing adjustments.
