Nine weeks after losing her husband, Charlotte escapes to a wooden houseboat where her shipmates are an aging blue-haired widow, an emotional seventeen-year-old, and the ugliest dog in literature. Gradually, a genuine friendship develops between the three women, united by the cramped quarters that confine them. Off the boat, Charlotte, an archeologist, joins a local excavation to uncover an ancient graveyard. Here she can indulge her passion for reconstructing the past, even as she tries to bury her own recent history.