Undoubtedly, the main character is India Taylor, a forty-three- year-old soccer mom in Westport, Connecticut. Like many of Steel's heroines, she is still beautiful and good at everything she does. She once lived an exciting life taking pictures in thirdworld countries, but her life now consists of keeping up with her four children aged nine to fourteen and taking care of her husband, Doug, whom she met while both were in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. As a young woman, India had a promising career as a photojournalist, but at Doug's insistence, she gave it all up to get married.

India's desire to pursue some projects causes friction in her marriage, and her discovery that Doug thinks of her as nothing more than a caregiver for him and their children sends her into a depression that is lifted only when she meets Paul Ward in Cape Cod...