Thirty-something Macey Burris has ambitions of a makeup artist career in the vibrant lights of a major city. But currently those visions are overshadowed with sacrifices in central Illinois. She's stuck in a rural city by her daughter's high school education and a meager part-time job. Macey's single life is held in check raising a sixteen-year-old all the while counting the days until she can finally enjoy independence, freedom, and inner peace. Add to that, her road to liberty shortens when a love interest comes along when she least expects it. Now she must courageously choose to stay her course or give in to salvation.

Supplementing the story is an eccentric landlord. He's been served with a legal paternity issue which he clearly defies. Until he meets the son responsible for the suit. Then the opinionated and temperamental man softens, yet that doesn't save him from his illegal pastime, which eventually lands him in jail.

Readers will also be engaged with four other broken characters highlighting the story. An assorted cast is individually trapped, lost in a prison of their own making or unsustainable circumstance. Separately, he or she has made promises to themselves with no quick fixes, revealing the hearts, minds, and struggles to be human in a flawed world. Collectively, each party struggles with a panorama of thwarted desire, desperation, hope, loss and ruin, all wanting a better life than what has been handed to them.

Dreams and aspirations are not in short supply for any of these characters though, as each reaches for what they hope will bring fulfillment, and a ticket out of New Water, Illinois.

(200 pages in length)