Joan Bergstrom lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen Fortier lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine-- and she's never tasted fresh garlic, exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. When Joan sends a fan letter-- and a gift of saffron-- the two women's letters build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives. Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. -- adapted from Goodreads info