If life were a television series, then Gabriel Benton's life has suddenly become an episode in the classic Twilight Zonewhere nothing is as he thought it was
When Gabe returns home to his family's Niagara Peninsula vineyard, after close to ten years in Europe, for the funeral of the father he's only recently reconciled with, there is more than one shock waiting for him. The first is that his father has not cut him out of his will as Gabe had always supposed; Gabe is now a co-owner of the Stone Crock and Oak Barrel Winery with his motherand his ex-wife, Ayanna. And second, Ayanna is thought of and treated as a daughter by his mother, and she and her sister have apparently been living with his parents for nearly a decadesomething that no one had bothered to tell him. Third, sometime between trying to poison himfiguratively, not literallywith her cooking during their brief marriage and Gabe's return to Canada, his ex-wife has become the highly-regarded chef of the winery's onsite restaurant.
And life has a few more surprises in store for Gabe, not the least of which is being blind-sided by the very unexpected sexual attraction he still feels every time he's in the same room with Ayanna. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a relationship counselor to tell Gabe what he already knowsAyanna would likely throw herself into the Niagara gorge or over the Falls before letting him anywhere near her bodyor her heartever again. She has every reason to hate the cheating, vice-addicted wild boy he'd once beenand he can't really blame her.
So, exactly how, in the name of Dionysus, god of ritual madness and ecstasy, is he supposed to make this partnership work?