A hysterical phone call from Henry Archer's ex-wife and a familiar face in a photograph upend his well-ordered life and bring him back into contact with the child he adored, a short-term stepdaughter from a misbegotten marriage long ago. Henry is a lawyer, an old-fashioned man—gay, successful, lonely. Thalia is now twenty-eight, an actress—hopeful, estranged from her newly widowed crackpot mother—Denise, Henry's ex. When Thalia and her complicated social life move into the basement of Henry's Upper West Side townhouse, she finds a champion in her long-lost father, and he finds new life—and maybe even new love—in the commotion.

Elinor Lipman is the author of eight previous novels, including The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, The Inn at Lake Devine, The Ladies' Man, Isabel's Bed, Then She Found Me, and My Latest Grievance.  In 2001 she won the New England Book Award for Fiction.  Lipman has taught at Simmons, Hampshire, and Smith Colleges. She divides her time between Northampton, MA and New York, NY.