In 1965 Amer­i­ca, women can’t have their own bank accounts, cred­it cards, or sign their own leas­es; divorce is scan­dalous and dif­fi­cult; and abor­tion is illegal. 

Every week, a group of sub­ur­ban house­wives meet for their Tues­day canas­ta game. As cards are drawn and dis­card­ed, the women share advice and con­fi­dences. When prim and prop­er Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, dis­cov­ers she’s preg­nant with their sec­ond child, she fol­lows her friend Becca’s sug­ges­tion and takes in Bet­sy, a preg­nant teen from the local home for unwed moth­ers. Bet­sy, who’s nev­er met any­one Jew­ish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysit­ting and house­keep­ing, have her own baby, and agree nev­er to con­tact the fam­i­ly again. 

But things quick­ly get com­pli­cat­ed. Lily, who’s opened her home to the teenag­er, nev­er planned on open­ing her heart, yet that’s exact­ly what hap­pens. Mean­while, Bec­ca is preg­nant with her fourth, and comes up with a scheme to get a legal, ther­a­peu­tic abor­tion, and Lily’s sis­ter, Rose, dis­cov­ers the man she mar­ried isn’t who he pur­port­ed to be, and turns to Lily and her hus­band for help.

Mov­ing and atmos­pher­ic, full of his­to­ry and heart, In the Fam­i­ly Way is a time­ly nov­el that cap­tures the expe­ri­ences of women on the cusp of lib­er­a­tion as they strug­gle with their own com­plex feel­ings about being wives, moth­ers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.