At the age of seventeen, Lucille Odom finds herself in the midst of an unexpected and unwanted domestic crisis. Her mother leaves the family to start a new life, and her father goes off on an obsessive trek to find and reclaim his wife of 27 years. To make matters worse, her beautiful and headstrong older sister returns home with her new husband and an even bigger surprise in store.
Lucille, partly by choice but mostly by default, tackles the role of family organizer and stabilizer. As the Odom family lives through its season of discontent and establishes a new and different equilibrium, Lucille emerges as a womanΓÇörich in wisdom, rich in humor, and rich in love.