Simply put, it tells the story of a woman who calls New York home. She writes obituaries for a newspaper, lives with her husband, an artist, in a spacious loft, has three rebellious but well-behaved children, and nothing extraordinary, nothing dramatic, intrudes upon the flow of her days. The extraordinary lies within her, in the way she perceives her surroundings: Should she buy a kosher chicken, or can she rely on instant chicken broth? Can she let the wealthy hosts chauffeur her to the dinner party in their Mercedes? Her life story – she is the daughter of Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust – is always present, and her profession – which often requires her to attend funerals of mostly unfamiliar people – heightens her awareness of the fragility of happiness.