Adams constructs her narrative as a series of vignettes interweaving scenes in the five women's lives, linked together by a consistent thread of authorial insight which reveals the secret thoughts of each.

The scenes are mirror images of one another—complementary encounters which form an interwoven history. Coincidence, surprise, and the logic of moral consequences combine into an intricate, active narrative where everything is related and contextual. Possession leads to loss—Fiona's restaurant, Jill's money, Noel's seductive good looks in the Bolinas crash—while poverty is rewarded with surprise success in Sage's New York show and Portia's house.

The San Francisco setting which Adams so loves, and the countryside around it, becomes an emblem of American life in that decade. Caroline and Ralph, returning from five years in Portugal, are in a sense no longer quite American, and the more European flavor they bring, their...