It's tempting to rush through this novel. The plot has unexpected twists and the characters are hilarious, condescending, fragile, self-righteous, and puzzled by life's complexity. Tassie is employed as a nanny by a trendy couple who live in a liberal college town (thinly disguised Madison, Wisconsin.) Raised in an atypical farming family, Tassie becomes enmeshed in her employers' lives, especially the life of the little girl the couple wishes to adopt. She is irreverent, funny, compassionate and clear headed. I found myself racing through the sentences because I was eager to find out what happened next. But that's a shame because Moore's elegant prose describes our present time brilliantly.