Starting in 1982 New Kerry, Massachusetts, young Cate Mandighan's mother Marie dies. Her father decides to send her to live with overseas relatives she has never met. Before leaving, her father promises her to one day look for her and asks her to write in her journal every day. Twenty six years later, Cate is a highly successful editor-in-chief of a popular lifestyle magazine in New York City, which helps women with problems. She is engaged to the older Stewart, a powerful media tycoon with two grown children. Their engagement is widely described in the media, and although they seem the perfect couple, Cate has trouble accepting his refusal to ever have children again.