Surrounded by staggering beauty they both surrendered to a passion too powerful to deny - and Joy gave herself freely to the most extraordinary man she had ever known. But Gabe was destined for great things, and even the intensity of their shared feelings could not bind him to this place or this romance. And so he left Joy with memories, a broken heart...and months later, with a cherished, if painful, reminder of their lost love: a daughter.

Seven years have passed, and Joy - now a respected professor - has put what once was behind her, though the memory will always remain alive in the light that shines in the eyes of her beautiful child. Still, the life they have made has no room for shattered dreams.

But now Gabe has returned. At the pinnacle of his profession, having tasted the fame and adventure that lured him away, he has never been able to fill the inner emptiness that has rendered his achievements bittersweet. The opportunity to revisit the endangered Lost River Cave - and a second chance at the young love he so heedlessly tossed away - is something he cannot let slip by.

But the Joy awaiting him is not the same naive and eager innocent he once left behind. Worldly and independent, she has nursed her wounds and moved on. And he has arrived far too late, she tells him, to be welcomed back into her heart.

But is it ever too late for love? Perhaps not, when there is still magic in a breathtaking world of natural wonder and mystery waiting for them once more beneath the rolling New Mexican desert - the place where a miracle was born.