Housewife Charlotte Emory lives a quiet, comfortable existence in Clarion, Maryland. She has always championed living life as simply as possible, casting off material things and celebrating the bare essentials. On an unremarkable rainy day, she decides to simplify her life in a very major way and leave her husband. But before she goes through with her plan, she runs to the bank, a harmless errand that throws her simple life and decision into disarray. At the bank, a restless young man—an escaped convict and former demolition derby driver—takes her hostage during a robbery. Soon this unlikely pair are on the road and heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate.

“Anne Tyler is adept at capturing the nuances of the human psyche, from its neurotic frailties to its surprising valor.”—Variety