Escaping the narrow, wealthy life she led in Manhattan, Zoe Finney moves her family to Park Slope, Brooklyn, an area of beautiful old brownstones where working-class families have lived for generations.A poor girl who married into money, Zoe finds comfort in the close-knit neighborhood.She hopes the change will reinvigorate her profoundly depressed husband and provide a happy place for her small daughter, Rose, to grow.

But her arrival there alters the lives around her, especially the handsome schoolteacher next door, Keevan O'Connor, who is deeply drawn to her. Despite Zoe's initial hesitation, they begin to fall in love. Rose is thrilled, recognizing in Keevan the warm, fun-loving father hers could never be. But when Zoe's husband wakes from his depression to see his wife slipping away, Zoe is torn between her love for two men.