The Love Letter

In the fictional New England coastal town of Loblolly-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, recently divorced middle-aged bookseller Helen MacFarquhar discovers a passionate, anonymous blue love letter among her mail at her bookshop. With no envelope and no name, she naturally assumes it was written for her, and the find rekindles her romantic imagination. Helen shares the letter with a few confidants, but word spreads and the letter soon passes through the hands of several townspeople — each convinced it was meant for them personally — igniting a wave of flirtation and romantic speculation across the small community. Johnny, a young college student working a summer job at Helen's bookstore, finds the letter and concludes that Helen herself wrote it for him; the misreading sparks a brief but real affair between the two. Meanwhile Helen also develops genuine feelings for George Matthias, an older local fireman and an old friend from her past, whose quiet steadiness offers a very different kind of connection. As Johnny grows jealous of Helen's lingering feelings for George, he attempts to make her envious by flirting with other women. Eventually Helen and Johnny both come to understand that neither of them authored the letter, and their affair ends on warm, amicable terms. George, believing he and Helen are simply the victims of bad timing, announces plans to relocate to New York City with his daughters. Before the situation resolves, Helen stumbles upon a hidden message George had left for her on a postcard, and she finally allows herself to admit her true feelings for him; George, in turn, signals that their connection is not finished by promising to send her postcards from New York. The identity of the letter's true author is ultimately revealed: it was written long ago by Helen's mother's lover — addressed to another woman entirely — a secret romance that could not be openly acknowledged in a more conservative era, its passion having outlasted its moment to resurface and unexpectedly upend an entire town.

Sources: Wikipedia, TMDb overview