The story unfolds with the Bishop family's ordinary yet bustling life in Crescent Bay City. Ava, the mother, is busy preparing dinner for their weekly gathering with the Sterling neighbors while her daughters, Seraphina and Arabella, have their own preoccupations. Seraphina has just returned from the mall and is helping set the table, while Arabella is engrossed in a book and reluctantly dragged away to buy cheese.

During dinner, the Sterlings announce that Kieran is finally going to college, having been accepted into four Ivy League schools. The news brings a mix of excitement and envy from Ava, who secretly wishes her daughters could achieve the same. After dinner, the kids go their separate ways, and life seems to continue as usual.

However, tragedy strikes when Ava receives a call at the grocery store, learning that her husband, Richard, has been in a fatal traffic accident caused by a drunk driver. The family is devastated, and Ava is left to grapple with the sudden loss and the responsibility of raising her daughters alone.

Unable to cope with the memories and the challenges, Ava decides to move back to Japan with her daughters. There, they start a new life, with Arabella becoming Hana and Seraphina becoming Yuna. As the girls grow up, they face new challenges. Seraphina enters the Japanese entertainment sector, while Arabella, now in the book - publishing business, yearns for freedom from her mother's over - protectiveness.

Arabella gets a job at a start - up firm in Crescent Bay, the city of her childhood. After much persuasion, Ava allows her to move back, on the condition that she stays with Everly. Arabella's return to Crescent Bay is met with mixed emotions. She reconnects with Everly, who is overjoyed to see her, and is surprised to find Kieran, now a mature and attractive man, picking her up from the airport.

As Arabella settles back into Crescent Bay, she has to navigate her new job, her relationship with Everly and Kieran, and the complex emotions that come with returning to a place filled with both happy and painful memories. The story explores themes of family, loss, growth, and the challenges of finding one's place in the world, as Arabella tries to balance her new - found independence with her love and responsibility towards her family.

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