Eleanor Levine left Ireland seventy years ago with little more than a suitcase and her mother's handwritten recipe books. Now, returning from New York a renowned psychoanalyst, she knows there's one final journey she has to make. As Eleanor re-reads her mother's words she becomes drawn into the lives of Megan, Rae and Connie. But can treasured wisdom handed down from mother to daughter really be relevant today? And what are the elements of a life well lived?