Just back from vacation in Malaysia and an inspirational cooking class, Amy is determined to continue the exhilaration of the trip with a dinner party and not succumb to the creepy feeling that her middle-aged body, the economy and world affairs are all headed south. What these perilous times require are friends, food and wine. On a beautiful summer day in Seattle Amy is putting the finishing touches on her table and cooking with a dash of angst mixed into her pleasure. Her husband, Kevin, has his doubts about the event but tries to be supportive, solve tax problems for a client and squeeze a few moments for himself out of the busy day. The guests, all enthusiastic cooks and consumers, include Alan, Alexis, Ben and Laurence. Alan, a happily unemployed software salesman, is looking forward to his lunch out before dinner. Ben, a software engineer in the midst of a work marathon he hates, has forgotten about the party. Laurence, an unhappily retired aerospace engineer, declined the invitation and is consumed with his own finishing touches. Alexis, Ben's wife, is unhappily unemployed and may be anticipating the evening the most of all. Amy also runs into a friend she hasn't seen in a long time, which changes her day. When friends get together to have fun it's usually amusing, sometimes hilarious. But parties, like cooking, friendships and marriage, have ups and downs. It's never quite as easy as the host thinks it will be, and there are always surprises. The novel includes six traditional Malaysian recipes for roti jala, curry laksa, otak-otak, fruit rojak, rendang, and black sticky rice pudding.