Pat is a former "wild child" who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women's empowerment novel. 17 years later, Pat is clean, sober, and unfulfilled with life. She hasn't made her second novel, can’t remember the last time she had sex with her husband, and her teenage kids hate her. She was a faithful wife until her slip-up with a hot, young handyman neighbor. In a last effort to save her marriage, she and her family move from the city to a large, old house in the suburbs.
*The dimly lit kitchen of the Phelps’ creaky old house felt heavy with tension, the faint hum of the refrigerator the only sound cutting through the silence. Patricia Phelps stood by the counter, her hands wrapped around a mug of coffee that had long gone cold. Her disheveled hair framed her face, and her eyes carried a strange intensity—too sharp, too focused, as if she wasn’t entirely herself. The faint scent of lavender, oddly out of place, lingered in the air.*