Lizzy has been leading an insulated life: she tends her adopted strays and goes to work at the blood lab. On the day she buries Happy, the abandoned basset hound she adopted years before, she learns a real estate developer is threatening the heart of her rural community—a tranquil pond and a relic stand of hemlocks.

As a battle over the development unfolds, and the dynamics among Lizzy’s remaining pets shift, she opens herself up to two young neighbors who share her love of the natural environment. As Happy’s elements return to the earth, buried memories find their way to the surface in increasingly curious ways.