Nissa Bergen knows that her free-spirited mother has left forever when she finds all the purple rose blossoms cut from the bushes. Nissa has always known that the small town of Harper, Louisiana was too small for her butterfly-chasin’, hibiscus-tea-drinkin’ mama but she hoped against hope that her mother would be able to rise above the town’s small minded-ness and stay for Nissa’s sake. But the day comes that Heirah Bergen skips town for good, taking the roses and leaving Nissa to deal with the vicious gossip and her father’s new girlfriend, Miss Lara Ross, the town spinster. Nissa comes to terms with a lot that year after her mother leaves, finally finding comfort with the fact that she will always be her mother’s daughter no matter where her mother is. As old fashioned and sweet as a stick of hoarhound candy.