Oliver, Emily's cousin, announces that New Moon actually belongs to his father. His girlfriend Maida is pregnant and loses her job and is left penniless. Emily, Ilse, Perry and Teddy, get her settled in the Disappointed House and end up helping to deliver her baby. Maida leaves town, and Oliver takes responsibility for his child.

Ollie Murray who has been without his mother for a year is finally re-united with her. In the time which she has been gone much has changed in Blair Water, especially the death of Ollie's father, Oliver Murray Snr. who died in the Klondike. Maida sets out to prove her love for her son, but there is still the possibility that Maida is only after the gold which Oliver Snr. left his son.

Overjoyed at finishing her first book she goes to see Teddy to see what he thinks of it. Only he breaks her heart when he is brutally honest about it bringing back memories of Dean Priest.

Emily then falls down the stairs and remembers back through a series of flashbacks the moments in her life that have shaped her future.