Bridgers's characters in this novel can be seen in two groups. The first consists of the two families of Rob and Ellery, both of which have produced troubled offspring. Ellery's family has split up and Rob's appears picture perfect, but the result has been the same.

Bridgers's exploration of the relations between Ellery and her mother and Rob and his father and grandfather is a careful weighing of the desire for power, the pull of personal needs, and the fundamental affection in each; the equal time and consideration that she gives each point of view explains why her unusually optimistic novel about the possibility that family ties can work and family can be a source of strength is credible and feasible. Fairlee, the injured uncle whom Rob has come to help, has never married. From outside the antagonism of the generational wars around him...