Night & Day Synopsis

This is a synopsis for my book Night and Day, which is posted on the First Chapters Romance Writing Competition. I'd be thrilled if you would read my chapter, vote, and share your thoughts on Night and Day. (the synopsis contains spoilers.)

Thanks!  Sherrie H

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Night and Day Synopsis

The year was 1900. Frederik and Maren Jensen may have been different as night and day, but their marriage was a happy one... Frederik, tending his family’s land near Copenhagen, Denmark, and Maren, mothering her babies, quilting, and making Danish Wedding Cakes... until one autumn day when the unthinkable happened...

All later generations of their family ever knew is that whatever happened affected Frederik so profoundly that he uprooted his family from the land he loved and brought them to America. Only Frederick knew he didn’t have a choice. He had to separate his wife from a man named Leif who loved Maren with his heart and soul.

The world has changed in infinite ways with the passing of one hundred years, but it would seem that fairy-tales can still come true when Jensen Marie Christiansen, a 39 year old quilter from Minnesota, and Anders Hollerud, an air traffic controller from Denmark meet on the Internet when she signs on as The_Little_Mermaid and he logs on as Ugly_Duckling.

When Jensen finds a packet of faded letters that may reveal the reason her Great-Grandfather Jensen left Denmark in the early 1900’s and brought his wife, Maren, to Minnesota, a secret love whose aftershocks span four generations is uncovered. When Anders discovers Jensen is from Minnesota, and not Denmark, as he assumed, the repercussions are just as vast, and mystery shrouds their future just as it does the past. Is it possible to love a woman you've never met, seen, or touched? Can the fantasy love they share online become reality, or will borders and time conspire to keep a second set of lovers apart?

The reality of their situations makes things even more complicated. Jensen’s parents have moved to Arizona, her brother wants to tear down their century old family home, and Jensen’s soon-to-be ex, “real life” boyfriend has a vasectomy without telling her. While the castle in the sky she discovers online with Anders might go a long way towards mending Jensen’s broken heart, she soon learns that all the pretty words in the world can’t fix a broken window, chase a bat out of her bedroom, or give her a child of her own.

All Anders really wants is for his son, Bjorn, to move back home, marry a nice Danish girl, and give him a grandchild so he can pass on his love of Denmark to a new generation. There’s no way on earth Anders would consider moving to America -- he’s disliked Americans ever since his ex-wife abandoned he and Bjorn and ran off to New York City to be with her lover. American politics and Disney’s reprehensible rewrite of “The Little Mermaid” didn’t help. Then Bjorn grew up and stunned him by accepting a job in Seattle, and the company Anders works for was bought out by an American conglomerate that values youth and enthusiasm over age and experience. Anders eventually has to admit that all Americans aren’t “ugly”, but the stark reality is that loving Jensen won’t bring Bjorn back home or put an end to the unsettling effects of globalization on his beloved country.

When Anders and Jensen find middle ground on Canada's Prince Edward Island, their rendezvous is a fantasy come to life. But much as she loves Anders, the thought of leaving her family, her home, and everything she holds dear and moving to Denmark is just as unthinkable to Jensen as moving to America was to Maren a hundred years earlier.

Jensen begins to realize that she is clinging to something that exists only in her memories when her sister-in-law fixes vegetarian lasagna and tiramisu for Thanksgiving dinner instead of turkey and pumpkin pie. As Anders takes to heart the poignant revelations revealed in Maren’s letters, he finally understands that he must let go of his bitterness towards America and all that it signifies and grasp the gift he has been given in Jensen.

Jensen always knew she was blessed to have known her Great-Grandmother Maren Jensen, to have inherited her name, her love of art and color, and her creative flair. As Anders translates her letters, Jensen receives another gift -- a secret Maren thought she had taken to her grave -- the knowledge that Jensen’s father was Leif’s son, and that Jensen herself is the grand finale of a love that crossed borders and time, oceans and obstacles, to bring Maren and Leif together at last. In Jensen Marie Christiansen, Maren and Leif finally became one. Thank goodness the fates won’t have to wait so long for Anders and Jensen to find a way to turn night into day, or a fairy tale come true into happily ever after.