The protagonist, Ana, is a young woman in her early thirties. She was born and raised mostly in New Jersey, but has since moved out West to Portland. In a lot of ways, she left her deep roots to escape her hardscrabble childhood. When she finds out her mother has cancer, she commits to spending a lot of time back east, helping not only with the care and treatments that come with a terminal illness, but in the managing and wrangling of the family...