Riva Kaplan is a talented delivery room nurse who put her career on hold for her ambitious husband, David, as he built a lucrative dermatology practice. Two small children and thirteen years of marriage later, Riva and David find themselves distant, drifting, and constantly arguing.

Riva's solution is to return to nursing part-time to regain an important part of her identity. David's solution is to build a mansion complete with lush landscaping, a pool, and tennis courts - and to have an affair. David is outraged by Riva's seeming inability to appreciate all that he's provided her and unnerved by her desire to work. He continues his descent into infidelity and increasingly shady financial dealings that threaten his practice.

Amid the deception, tension, and turmoil, neither Riva nor David can escape the influence of their upbringng. Women in Riva's family have always been self-sufficient; her mother supported the family after Riva's father, a flamboyant womanizer, deserted them. David, infused with a feeling of unworthiness by his cruel and abusive father, is driven to both overachieve and control every situation.

At odds but still in love with her husband, Riva must disentangle her priorities if she is ever to rise to grace.

The first section of the book is called "Family Vortex." It contains five linked stories. The narrative is advanced as each member's story is told in the third person. Hannah struggles with cancer, when her husband Irwin abandons her. Irwin's affair with Penelope is explored, as is his rise to success in the advertising world, his love for Ethan and inability to love Hannah, Warren or Nina. Ethan, Warren, and Nina then tell their tumultuous stories as a part of this dysfunctional family.

"Trapped Hearts," the second section, contains seven short stories about women trying to resolve their conflicting relationships in order to lead a better life. "Whither Thou Goest" is the story of a Jewish girl caught in a homosexual relationship to escape her smothering mother. The second story called "I Don't Give a Damn" is about a teenager coping with her mother's pancreatic cancer. The story "Photographs," first printed in Epiphany Fiction Journal, January 2004, is about a young artist coming to terms with her famous father who photographs nude women for a living. The fourth story, "Little Blessings," is about a Jewish couple confronting the news that the wife is carrying a baby who will die at birth from a rare genetic disease. The fifth story, "Transactions," is about three generations of Jewish women who are enmeshed with one another in their real estate business. The sixth story, "Time of Her Life," is about a student who tries to put her life back together after being raped. The seventh story, "Red Dress," is about a young girl living on St. Thomas who has to recover from the loss of her mother and form a new relationship with her father.