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Set in 2004. An elderly mother's stroke threatens the care of her developmentally disabled 52-year-old son, who in the early 1950s, shortly after birth, was sent off to an institution and reclaimed by his his mother when he was 8. Evelyn Phillips has made it her mission to care for her older son Ted year-round in what was once solely a summer home, where a younger son Nick also lives. Evelyn Phillips has also made it her mission to champion the rights of the developmentally disabled and has assembled a significant library detailing the terrible history of mistreatment of the "retarded." As the novel opens, Evelyn's 29-year-old-niece, Linnie Carson ("Linnie" short for Evelyn), arrives. Her own marriage unraveling, Linnie hopes to get Evelyn back on her feet: Evelyn has done a better job raising Linnie than Evelyn's sister did or could. That evening, she has dinner in town with Evelyn's charming 32-year-old lawyer. Linnie knows Brendan O'Connor well, as he is the son of Evelyn's best friend and recently deceased lawyer, and she never much liked self-centered women he divorced. Brendan explains the consequences of Evelyn's stroke. If she doesn't recover, the state's Surrogate Court will need to appoint a guardian for Ted, and that person's decisions will determine where and how Ted will live. Linnie imagines the obvious choice to be Evelyn's oldest child, Margot, who thinks that if her mother doesn't recover, Ted's extremely limited and declining abilities would best be served by putting him back in an institution, a prospect that her mother has spent her life opposing. Brendan explains that if Evelyn doesn't recover, Margot will seek to have herself appointed Ted's guardian. Linnie doesn't like the prospect, but has been imagining a new life of her own, one that doesn't include caring for a 52-year-old disabled cousin. Brendan tells Linnie that Evelyn was in his office eight weeks ago having him draft a new will. Certainly, she didn't anticipate the stroke. In that will, Evelyn nominates Linnie, not Margot, to the be the guardian. However, the will isn't admissible to court (Evelyn's alive), and the nomination would need Linnie's and the court's approval. Linnie is put off by the prospect, but Evelyn is the pillar and soul of what family she has. Owed vacation time and able, if need be, to take a leave-of-absence from her job, she decides to stick around a while, and a riveting family drama ensues that plays out in the home and Surrogate Court. There is humor, heartache, love, a possible romance, and danger. Ted's inclination to occasionally wander off on his own at night puts him at risk as a few corpses of people like Ted - older, disabled, unrestrained by the supervision and locked doors of an institutional home , inclined to wander familiar paths - start turning up, oddly disfigured.