Laura Donovan is devoted to her two young children but she finds men incomprehensible - including Peter, her workaholic husband - and she is wary and distrustful of women after the betrayal of her best friend. Lonely and isolated in a new town, Laura meets high-spirited, uninhibited Julia, whose compassionate attention is impossible to resist. Out of the fabric of ordinary conversations, an extraordinary relationship emerges, and Laura gains new perspectives on the people in her life and a new understanding of herself. Ultimately she finds she must confront the choices, conscious and unconscious, that will define her life.