In 1950’s New England, being a marriageable young lady means following a certain set of rules. Nineteen-year-old Sabina McTigue knows them all too well, thanks to her imposing Aunt Poppy, who has already decided a.) how Sabina will spend the season at their summer home in Edgartown, b.) which women’s college she’ll attend in the fall, and c.) the type of young man she’ll eventually marry.

But Sabina has other ideas. And the island, it seems, does too. Sabina is about to meet the Vineyard’s most notorious bachelor—charter pilot, Colin Hatch. With a cloudy service history, some questionable business arrangements, and a reputation for charming every available girl at the yacht club, Colin isn’t exactly the traditional match her aunt had in mind. When Sabina takes a chance on him anyway, a complex love triangle soon emerges, setting Sabina on an entirely different path—not just for this summer, but maybe for the rest of her life.

A coming-of-age story woven into a small, coastal town’s various dramas, Ways of Virtue reads like Dirty Dancing meets Jane Austen—complete with a beautiful seaside setting; a high-society wedding in the making; a host of scheming, jealous neighbors; and a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane, barreling toward them all the while.