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Review

New Bethlehem, Indiana is about to collide with San Francisco, California.

Naomi Bittner, returning to her roots in the Midwest, is unhappy that Ruth Greene, the discarded girlfriend of her daughter, Marina, has insisted on accompanying her. Both women are mourning Marina. Neither woman understands why Marina has fled them both.

As Naomi tries to reconnect the threads of a life she left years ago, hip young San Franciscan Ruth wends her way cautiously through the intricate interconnections of small-town life, its assumptions and rigid standards of behavior. Slowly, she uncovers secrets, and closets.

One of those closets is occupied by the highly admired town doctor, Belinda Boaz, Naomi's cousin. An attraction building between Belinda and Ruth seems to have a hopeless future: Belinda is a generation removed from Ruth in age, has a daughter and grandchild, and is deeply entrenched in a town seemingly unwilling to change its traditional views and beliefs.

Then, suddenly, events careen out of control in the town of New Bethlehem...

Within this novel of clashing values is an exquisite depiction of small-town America. Within these pages are portraits of real people and their capacity, at any age, for growth and change.