This sweet sto­ry is about a woman’s deep love and care for her phys­i­cal­ly ail­ing father. Mira Cayne notices Matt Frank’s decline in spir­it as well as in body fol­low­ing a health cri­sis. She caters to her some­what proud father’s emo­tion­al needs and push­es him to get help. The two ban­ter about his con­di­tion in a humor­ous way, allow­ing them to deal with the dif­fi­cult real­i­ties of aging. 

Mira’s moth­er seems emo­tion­al­ly repressed, and her broth­er has been out of con­tact with the fam­i­ly for many years for unknown rea­sons. Mira takes on the bur­den of hold­ing the fam­i­ly togeth­er, with the sup­port of her hus­band, Aaron, and their daugh­ter, Lilly. 

Also promi­nent in the nov­el is Mae, a wise woman in her nineties who was Matt’s nan­ny and is still a beloved fix­ture in his fam­i­ly. She’s a devout, church­go­ing Chris­t­ian who con­stant­ly reads and quotes her very worn Bible. Matt has a strong con­nec­tion to his Jew­ish her­itage, which he’s tried to pass on to his chil­dren and grand­daugh­ter. He and Mae are life­long friends. 

The Frank fam­i­ly has been high­ly affect­ed by the con­stan­cy Mae has shown them. Matt has ensured that she is cared for espe­cial­ly well now, dur­ing her advanced age. Their shared nos­tal­gia buoys them both up; nobody else knows them as well as they know each other.

Mira’s reg­u­lar vis­its afford her a deep­er con­nec­tion to Mae. She learns vital life lessons from her father and Mae and finds a way to recon­nect with her own spirituality.

This book tells a uni­ver­sal sto­ry of fam­i­ly ties — of the inevitable ups and downs peo­ple expe­ri­ence. Its unique­ness lies in the clar­i­ty and con­ci­sion with which it describes Mira’s mind­ful­ness, grat­i­tude, and oth­er very human emotions.