Lily Bloom is an ordinary young woman with a marketing job and a dream of opening a flower shop. Unfortunately, she also carries emotional baggage from her father being physically abusive to her mother and, occasionally, to her as a child. The only person she’d trusted with that secret was her high-school boyfriend, who’d suffered similar trauma—the only person, that is, until she meets Ryle Kincaid. On the surface, Ryle seems like the whole package: He’s attractive, successful, intelligent, and honest about what he wants. Though he previously shied away from serious romantic relationships, he and Lily get together.