Dane Nicholson drove along the scenic back roads in Maine, doing some deep soul-searching. His friend and mentor, Father MacDougal, had challenged him to find the answers to three questions: what was something worth living for, something worth dying for, and something worth believing in with all his heart, mind and soul? While stopping in a small town for dinner and some fishing, a young girl robs him and cuts her foot badly in the process. He finds her, and plans to have a long talk with her parents, only to discover that she doesn’t have any. She’s been taking care of her four younger brothers and sister by herself, and living in abject poverty.

The girl also turns out not to be quite as young as he originally thought. He decides to help the little family, and teach this little slip of a girl a few lessons before someone less honorable than himself takes advantage of her. But little does he know that she will take much more from him than a few hundred dollars. She has stolen his heart.