Greg Harris has been besotted ever since he was eight. As soon as the young Scot saw a photo of Ellen Fromm, a gorgeous ten-year-old from Wilmington, North Carolina, he was hooked by her soft, haunting smile.
He is devastated when, six years later, his beloved pen pal stops writing and vanishes. For many years he makes feverish attempts to contact her but in vain. He feels as if all meaning has gone out of his life. But he never forgets Ellen and clings to the dream that, one day, they will be together.
At last, when he is thirty, he finds a letter Ellen once wrote to his late granddad that transforms his life. When she and Greg eventually meet, it says, she reckons she may fancy him in a big way. As this boost revives his mission in life, Greg arranges a job in Wilmington, flies out and for ages hunts high and low for Ellen.
But a major doubt lurks in his mind. Ever since he was a kid, he has had Tourette’s Syndrome. He has never told Ellen about it. Even if he finds her, will his secret ruin his chance of happiness?