Ronald Anderson a 39-year-old artist and art professor on sabbatical since the unexpected death of his wife in an automobile accident two years earlier. The tragedy has left him dark and distant, his art becoming dark and macabre, his life a humdrum daily existence devoid of hope, until the day Allie comes to his door. Allie (Alice May Jewett) is a 23-year-old Junior recently enrolled at the university after three years of community college in a small town in Montana. She too, has suffered great tragedy; the loss of her father during the war in Iraq ten years earlier. Naive and quite innocent after a sheltered life spent helping her mother after her father's death, she is on her own for the first time and learning about life and herself. Through their shared tragic histories, friendship and healing begins that quickly leads to stronger inner feelings of love and desire. Working through the nuances of generational differences, the two cling to each other, each in different ways. Ron is the nurtruing father figure Allie has never known. She is the impish, sometimes impudent girl teasing and eventually seducing the structured and romantically-resistant Ron. Working through their conflicts they find healing and hope, but not without external opposition. Allie must convince her mother that her relationship with Ron is more than a typical coed's crush on a professor. Ron's daughter, nearly Allie's age, despite her own dark secret, finds her father's new romance revolting. A Snapshot in Time is a compelling tale of two people finding hope and happiness in each other. The characters come to life with all their dark feelings and bright hopes, making the reader fall in love with both and hope for the best."