Jess has lived peaceably in Shrewsbury with her husband Jacob for many years. He is solid, dependable, beautiful to her. She is contented to be his wife, to look after his elderly mother, aunt, and cousin, to be a pillar of their family and community. Then, suddenly, everything changes. Now Jess must question the entire basis on which she has lived so many years of her life, must discover whether the identity she has created has really been so valuable to herself and to those around her, and whether there is a different—angry, passionate, fulfillable—Jess waiting to get out.