Spring’s First Bud: A girl from the alley experiences the stirrings of love amid a rain of lilac blossoms. She discovers her mother’s long-hidden love letter written in blue ink, planting the seeds of a longing for love mingled with fear.
Summer’s Burning Pain: At university, she experiences a forbidden love that leaves a lasting mark. On a stormy night, she loses her unborn child, and from then on, her left pinky trembles permanently.
Autumn’s Silence: After becoming a special education teacher, she forms a Platonic spiritual connection with an autistic painter. But on a snowy night, she sees him carve his final words into a canvas with a scalpel.
Winter’s Echo: At forty-four, she takes apart a wind chime made of keys on the top floor of a care home. In the fragments of memory eroded by Alzheimer’s, the faces of everyone she has loved merge into the youthful features of her mother.
