Bernadette and Norman Smith have just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. After all these years, they are still romantic and in love. They have four children who all have children of their own. The children live in nearby Los Angeles not far from the retirement park where Bernadette and Norman are living. Of all the grandchildren she has, Bernadette has a favorite, Eddie. She and Eddie, who is a teenager when the book begins, have many interests in common. They love books, history and language. And Eddie likes to help Bernadette do small things like show her how to use an iPod. When setting up her computer he scatters his back pack belongings all over the sofa in the study. He hurriedly grabs them up when his dad says it is time to go. Bernadette thinks that the study could use a little change of decor. As she slides the sofa away from the wall she discovers a book wedged in between the wall and the sofa. The book is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. On the inside cover someone has written "Eddie's Bible." Bernadette believes that Eddie has left her this treasure -- a modern translation of the Bible specifically for young people. And she begins to read it. She doesn't tell anyone about the book, but it starts to influence her decisions and beliefs. As she is beginning her senescence, her mind is aging, too, and logic is fleeing. She, in fact, is showing senility. How will the book influence her decisions about her children and grandchildren? How will it change how she copes and how she feels as old age begins to take its toll on both she and Norman. When their children have problems in their marriages and her grandchildren become unapproachable and her husband's health as well as her own begins to fail, how will "Eddie's Bible" help her, or will it at all? There are no quotes or references to Wallace's book in this novel. The novel is not based on any of his work or on any work about him. And could there be a more odd selection of novels to even refer to in this more delicate story? Perhaps you will find out why I chose that book as you read."