<P>"But Mother is always dying," is Gillian Ormsby's sarcastic response when her younger, favored sister tells her that she has to go take care of their hypochondriac mother. Much against her will, since she and her mother never have gotten along, Gillian arrives in California to find the garden and yard dead, the blinds drawn, and her mother in bed -- waiting to die. Yet her mother's doctors assure Gillian that there's absolutely no physical reason for her mother's state.</P><P>Now on a mission to restore her mother to health, Gillian insists Mother get out of bed, eat, exercise and hopefully, choose to live. She also sets about reviving the garden to its former glory, enlisting the help of Adam, a handsome man who owns a family gardening business with his father. </P><P>Gillian is delighted when a pair of hummingbirds appears and her friendship with Adam grows. When her mother's health improves, and she announces that she and her friend Enzio are going off on a cruise, Gillian once again is left high and dry -- but mostly she left with a decision that she's been postponing for way too long: What is she to do with the rest of her own life?</P>