When a newcomer moves to the tiny island with his 15-year-old niece, everyone takes notice. But no one suspected Ken was a child molester until the girl fled his house one night for refuge at a neighbor’s.

Greenlaw surprised even herself by volunteering to take the girl in for a few days. But what started as an act of neighborly kindness turned into an unexpected mother/daughter relationship, with Greenlaw enrolling Mariah in private school, taking the abused girl to counseling and eventually going to court to become Mariah’s legal guardian.

Gradually, we see Greenlaw develop feelings of motherly pride and love as Mariah becomes not just a troubled teen but Greenlaw’s daughter.

Today, Mariah is a 21-year-old junior in college, majoring, fittingly, in social work.