Sylvie Serfer met Richard Woodruff in law school. She had wild curls, a hippie-chick wardrobe and lots of opinions she wasn't shy about sharing. But decades of marriage and motherhood have molded Sylvie as the perfect politician's wife. At fifty-seven, she ruefully admits that her only job is tending to her husband. Lizzie, the Woodruff's youngest daughter, is a recovering addict, and still depending on her long-suffering family to get her out of the trouble that always seems to find her. Kate, her sister, is an emergency room physician who has achieved the "perfect" husband, home, son, and career -- so why is she so unhappy; When Richard's extramarital affair makes headlines, the three women's lives are drawn into the painful glare of the media spotlight. Sylvie retreats to her grandmother's rambling seaside home to ride out the gossip, and is soon joined there by her distraught daughters.