Lynne Goloder’s third nov­el reads like a parent’s worst night­mare. Nar­ra­tor Char­lotte, nick­named Char­lie, is a forty-year-old woman try­ing to process her impul­sive deci­sion to drop out of col­lege and live off the grid for twen­ty years in a cult-like agri­cul­tur­al commune. 

As a young, beau­ti­ful, and naïve woman, Char­lie fol­lows her charis­mat­ic pro­fes­sor turned lover on a fate­ful jour­ney to rur­al Nova Sco­tia, where he demands that she cut off con­tact with her bewil­dered Mid­west­ern Jew­ish par­ents. Char­lie tells her­self that James loves her, despite his mys­te­ri­ous absences. There are many explic­it sex scenes in which James tries to con­vince Char­lie of his fideli­ty to her.

The author offers beau­ti­ful descrip­tions of the nat­ur­al world and the plants and pro­duce that Char­lie lov­ing­ly tends at the com­mune. Slow­ly, Char­lie comes to terms with her ten­den­cy to be a fol­low­er and to look for love in all the wrong places. Although she real­izes that she is being con­trolled, she feels trapped. She has ​“lost her voice.”

After she uncov­ers some dark secrets about James and the com­mune, she final­ly gar­ners the strength to break away from them. Char­lie escapes Cana­da in the mid­dle of the night in her par­ents’ old car with some ill-found mon­ey. Mys­tery and mur­der fol­low her to Ver­mont, where she meets a sup­port­ive new female friend. Here Char­lie attempts to make a new life and dares to con­tact her long-lost fam­i­ly. They imme­di­ate­ly fly east to recon­nect despite the immense pain she has caused.

Charlie’s par­ents, who were once sec­u­lar but sought solace with a Jew­ish con­gre­ga­tion after their daugh­ter cut them off, encour­age her to attend ser­vices. She reluc­tant­ly joins them and meets the rab­bi, a hand­some wid­ow­er who imme­di­ate­ly takes an inter­est in her. A romance begins and she slow­ly embraces Jew­ish rit­u­als and cus­toms she nev­er knew as a child. Charlie’s new love inter­est seems slight­ly deriv­a­tive of the ​“hot rab­bi” in the pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion series Nobody Wants This. But our nar­ra­tor earns a sec­ond chance at hap­pi­ness in midlife, with her fam­i­ly, friends, and new love cheer­ing her on.