New York, 1908: The days are getting longer-and warmer-in Manhattan. Molly Murphy Sullivan doesn't want to leave her home in the city, but typhoid is back, and she's expecting. So she heads north with the children to summer with her mother-in-law in Westchester County. Molly tells herself it won't be so bad, after all the countryside is pretty, and she's determined to make the best of it. Even if she's leaving her husband, Daniel, behind. And at least she's not the only one heading north. Her great friends, Sid and Gus, are headed to the Catskills to visit Sid's family.

Though her mother-in-law is a surprisingly excellent host, Molly quickly grows bored. And when Sid and Gus invite her to visit, Molly jumps at the chance to stay with them at an artist's community. What a pleasant time they'll have, so far from the city, although Sid isn't so enthusiastic about having to visit her family in the nearby Jewish bungalow community. But deep in the Catskills, tensions are running high, and it's not long before a body delays Molly's return to Westchester.