Richard Bowmaster - a 60-year-old human rights scholar - hits the car of Evelyn Ortega - a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala - in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. This minor traffic accident becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Exploring the timely issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees, the book recalls Allende's landmark novel "The House of the Spirits".