eighteen-year-old Elise bolts up in bed. The nightmare was clear, it was time to escape the abusive home she'd been confined to since she was six. Fleeing Arizona with a promise to return for Bea, the little girl she nannies, Elise lands on the doorstep of Chicky-Pie's Café.

Nestled in an eclectic modern-day Southern California town, the café serves up more than down-home Southern cooking. Mell, the black proprietor, has a heart for helping the hurting and homeless. Fearful, weary, and running from a past she's only beginning to understand, Elise finds courage and hope from a believing husband and friends who embrace her as one of their own.

When the past returns to haunt her, Elise risks everything she's gained and re-enters the fractured and dangerous world she left behind. Determined to save Bea from a similar fate to her own, she battles for her freedom while awakening to her own deepest need: inner liberation and strength. Along the way, she learns family isn't defined by blood, the people who raised you, or the color of your skin. She discovers that true freedom and strength come as God fills the holes in our hearts and heals unspoken trauma with His love.