Liesl McNamara's Wild Rise is not only a popular backhouse and cafe in Vermont, it's an extension of herself. Liesl is an artisan bread maker, like her mother and grandmother before her. Even though she lost her mother to suicide when she was eleven, she keeps this maternal bond alive as she bakes. Liesl prides herself on living an uncomplicated unattached life. But that changes when Seamus walks through the door of Wild Rise, lugging the large bags of whole wheat flour from the local food co-op. He and his daughter Cecelia have recently moved to the country seeking simplicity. Despite her best efforts, Liesl becomes attracted to this teddy bear of a man who laughs easily and eats strange sandwich concoctions, on her bread, much to her dismay. Her simple life is further complicated when a popular cooking show features her bakery. The publicity increases her business and brings several offers from larger businesses, all of which she turns down. But it also brings a completely unexpected phone call, one from a woman claiming to be her half-sister. Liesl's sense of identity dissolves as everything about her relationship with her mother, and the bread that held them together, comes into question. Has she been given stones rather than bread? And how can she ever take these crumbs and make them whole again?