Emily Locus had a long-term date with a friend on Friday afternoons. On one of those Fridays, August 8, 2008, though, she suffered a stroke that she did not survive.

In 2017, Emily’s daughter, Alex, is passing time at a New York bookshop, enjoying an author read from her collection of stories. Alex’s life changes forever when an older woman says the author was the first recipient of the Emily Locus Award and Alex walks up to her and says, I am Alex Locus.

This begins a quest by Alex and her best friend Kate to learn the truth about her mother, starting with their reading the unpublished stories that for years sat in the attic of Alex’s one-time suburban home. A quest that will reveal secrets, good and bad, about the family members she knew and some she only came to meet in her search.