Teaching Sunday school at her brother's church in the Bay
area was supposed to help former champion athlete
Esther "Essie" Walker understand boys — the better to
raise her newborn son as a stellar example of manhood. Fat
chance! Enter the eight-year-old male psyche: awful jokes,
disrespectful behavior and general mayhem. Essie, the
queen of control, finds herself in a brand-new world of
chaos.
The pressure builds on all fronts — Sunday school class,
husband's job, church pageant, aging parents, finances,
friends secretly battling illnesses — until Queen Esther
has one royal meltdown. God, it seems, has makeover plans
for Essie's competitive nature. Her characteristic control
is in very short supply as she gains a better
understanding of the nature of imperfection, the value of
motherhood and the virtues of a messy but connected life.