Merritt Fowler is a natural caretaker who has spent most of
her life attending to the emotional needs of those closest
to her: her beautiful, erratic younger sister, Laura; her
self-sacrificing physician husband, Pom; and now Pom's
destructive, Alzheimer's-afflicted mother. Exhausted and
confused by the burdens she's taken on, Merritt faces a new
crisis when a fierce family quarrel makes her fragile
sixteen-year-old daughter, Glynn, flee their Atlanta home to
seek sanctuary in California with Aunt Laura, a Hollywood
actress whose career is in decline. Following Glynn west and
deciding to stay there-against her irate husband's wishes-
Merritt hopes to heal the ever-widening fissures between
mother and daughter, sister and sister. And on an impulsive
trip up the coast into the Santa Cruz Mountains-earthquake
country-the three women will have to confront their separate
demons in order to save and change their lives.