In his novel, set in a Montana town during the 1950s and 1960s, David Long charts the inner life of a young carpenter, Mark Singer, whose marriage to Olivia, one of the four Stavros sisters, draws him into the tensions and joys of family life. Raised by his grandmother, Mark is a stranger to the teasing humor and smoldering resentments that preside at the Stavros dinner table. His favorite pastime is to watch these four women: Olivia, the serious and stable sister; Celia, whose "calamitous history" with men is famous in Sperry; Helen, the dutiful manager of her father's cafe; and Linny, the oldest and most enigmatic, who slowly begins to cast a spell over her brother-in-law. The two embark on an illicit affair just as Nick Stavros struggles to save his failing business. And as events lurch out of control, threatening to unravel this closely knit family, Mark must confront the nature of marriage and desire.