Emily, Kay and Celeste have been best friends forever. Their daughters are close, too, but all the girls are off to college now, and the mothers must redefine themselves as women. Emily, once half of the perfect marriage, hardly knows her workaholic husband Doug anymore. What she wants so badly from him is being offered by her new neighbor, a widower with heart, soul, and grit. Kay, a dedicated teacher, still loves her job, but her husband John is making unfamiliar demands of her, demands that confuse her and make her wonder about their future together. Celeste, long-divorced, is ecstatic with freedom. She searches for the perfect man, but when her daughter is endangered, her electric new life looks terribly dim. As the most precious parts they've hidden for years suddenly demand to be heard, these three women must learn to love themselves. Barbara Delinsky expertly interweaves these three stories in a glorious work that is at once moving, romantic, and real.