When a person's life reaches a dead end or is literally exhausted in everything they once breathed, a special time and space of despair and weightlessness opens up. Casey Peabody, a lonely young woman burdened with old student debts and romantic confusion, unexpectedly losing her closest friend — her own mother — rents a barely livable shed in Boston and tries to stay afloat — working as a waitress, walking the landlord's dog, and trying to thaw her feelings. Casey has reason to visit doctors too. On top of all this, she is a passionate aspiring writer, and she has something to say, but everything moves extremely slowly: she has been writing her first novel for six years. She also faces inner demons, but what Casey gradually achieves is not mere graphomania, and even she, though hesitantly, understands this. Lily King tells us about how life shuffles the worst cards, what unexpected turns even the most bitter hopelessness can bring, and how deep and frighteningly beautiful the world is when seen through the eyes of a creator — showing a view that is insightful, gentle, and uncompromising.