Includes reading group guide

"From the author of Driving Lessons, Saving Ruth, and Balancing Acts comes a poignant breakout novel about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveat--she must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it. Maggie Sheets is just trying to get by. A single mother, she works as a house cleaner and dreams of the days when her financial woes will be over. When her former employer, Liza, a renowned author Maggie once considered a friend, takes her own life, Maggie learns that she has been included in the will and now owns a beautiful home in Sag Harbor. But there's a catch: Maggie's also inherited Liza's eighty-two year old mother. Edith has always prided herself on her independence, but a recent Alzheimer's diagnosis has her wary about the future. She's left on her own to pick up the pieces of her daughter's death until Maggie, with her toddler in tow, arrives at her house, guarded but determined to make their unlikely situation work. Edith is angry and uninterested, until she suffers a fall and must rely on Maggie. Together they begin to heal the hurt left in Liza's wake, and when Maggie offers to transcribe Edith's life for her to help hold onto the moments she's terrified of losing, a tentative alliance forms. As Maggie helps Edith resolve the aftermath of a long-held secret--and confronts both the roots and repercussions of one of her own--each woman embarks on a path to forgiveness, acceptance, and a life-changing friendship"--