On her way home one fall evening, Kate, a 39-year-old woman who once dreamed of being a mother, finds a little girl named Lily sitting alone in the dark. Lily’s mother had left that morning and never returned. After feeding her and staying with her, a man named Travis appears and delivers heartbreaking news: Lily’s mother had died earlier that day. With no family and no legal guardian, Lily faced being taken into the system. But she clung to Kate, the only person who stayed with her.

Kate volunteers to take her in. What follows is a difficult process of interviews and inspections, but Kate and Lily grow closer. Lily brings light into Kate’s life, and Kate becomes the safe place Lily desperately needs.

At the final hearing, Kate is granted full guardianship. Lily asks if that means Kate is her mom now—and Kate happily says yes. Both of them, broken in different ways, end up saving each other. Together, they become the family they each thought they had lost forever.