Ann and Jacob ticked off the boxes of adult life: get married, buy a house, and have a family.
Both of them missed the box of “fall in love.”
Early in their married life, Jacob’s career moves them to a new community. With no employment options, Ann falls into the role of a traditional wife. Or at least she tries to. As she attempts to renovate the decrepit hundred-year-old home they purchased, the stresses of parenthood, mismatched relationship goals, low self-esteem, and financial burdens of a money-pit home, brings Ann’s ennui to a head when COVID hits.
Trapped in their isolation bubble, her family craves escape. Jacob and their children each find one by means that undermine the family life Ann covets. As her family unravels, her escape route is writing a memoir of her house-centered life, in which she examines her life-decisions by imagining her story read and discussed by a bookclub.