Dr. Jeff Taylor, now unmarried, has settled in the small city of Appleton, an hour north of San Francisco. He works at a rural community health care clinic and is romantically involved with the clinic's founder, the indefatigable Inez Vasquez. Inez has a daughter, Bianca, who is nine years old. Jeff takes her on Saturday adventures to give Inez a break from her single-parenting duties. During an outing at a vast nature preserve, Bianca disappears while she and Jeff play Hide and Seek. When she reappears, Bianca announces she got lost but was guided back by someone she nicknames 'Teacher Lady.' Teacher Lady turns out to be a young homeless woman, Edwina Seeba. Jeff tries to help her. Edwina seems not quite of this world-she claims a friendship with legendary horticulturist Luther Burbank, who died in 1926. Is Edwina simply crazy, or a heavenly creature come back to earth? When she is killed in a hit-and-run accident-while saving a child's life-Jeff sets out to find the killer driver... and is shocked by the truth his pursuit reveals.