Andrea Gibb

A single mother attempts to console her fatherless son by writing letters from an imaginary father who is off on seafaring adventures around the world, but when she can no longer maintain the illusion, she hires a stranger to fill the role.

Tom Parker is obsessed with turning the sleepy seaside village of Sanditon into a fashionable health resort. He enlists the backing of local bigwig Lady Denham. Through a mishap, Tom makes the acquaintance of the Heywoods and invites their eldest daughter, Charlotte, for an extended stay at Sanditon. Meanwhile, Lady Denham, a widow, is playing matchmaker for her destitute nephew, Sir Edward, who is determined to seduce Lady Denham's ward, Clara.

Maud is convinced something horrible happened to her best friend, Elizabeth, but in her search discovers it may be entwined with another disappearance from her childhood. The answers seem within her grasp, but the onset of dementia keeps pulling them through her fingers.