Dabney Kimball Beech, the 48-year-old fifth generation Nantucketer, has had a lifelong gift of matchmaking (42 couples still together to her credit). But when Dabney discovers she is dying of cancer, she sets out to find matches for a few people very close to home - her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech; her lover journalist Clendenin Hughes; and her daughter, Agnes, who is engaged to be married to the wrong man. As time slips away from Dabney, she is determined to find matches for those she loves most - but at what cost to her own relationships?