Eleanor Flood is a mess. She's erratic, scattered, and constantly getting things wrong (dates, names, times). She resorts to calling everything "amazing" because the right word always seems to be just out of reach. But all that's about to change, because today, she vows, will be different. Today she will be her best self. Eleanor sets the bar at a comfortable level: low. She will put some effort into her appearance. She will play a board game with her eight-year-old son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her hand-surgeon-to-the-stars husband, Joe. But then life happens, and Eleanor's modest plan gets derailed. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to play sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Eleanor discovers that Joe's been skipping out on work and telling his receptionist--and not his wife--that he's on vacation. When an unexpected encounter with a spurned former colleague produces a relic from the past that threatens to expose a long-buried family secret, Eleanor comes completely undone.