"Then her bathtub falls through the floor and her neighbors (the children are all named after synthetic fabrics) reveal their tendency toward loud noises, bright lights, and bug zappers deep into the night. Picture-perfect Roches Ridge begins to reveal its imperfections and true character, and Clea - suffering withdrawal from the city, not yet at home in the increasingly odd countryside - feels compelled to wonder about the true character of her own life.
"As her past unfolds in a series of flashbacks we watch her move toward an understanding of the real cost of her mutually adulterous marriage, the real impulse behind the invariably pretty and popular photographs she takes, and, most importantly, the real nature of her complex, often tumultuous feelings for her best - and most difficult - friend, Elke. And as her newly adopted hometown reveals itself more and more clearly (it is full of surprises), we see Clea adjusting, settling in, accepting, and finally finding, in both her past and present circumstances, the bedrock on which to build the rest of her life."
