With her 50th birthday staring her in the face, Rachel Kazinski searches desperately for meaning that has been lost to decades of domesticity. On a whim, she registers for an art class, hoping to find satisfaction in redeveloping a long-ignored talent.
But her return to painting unexpectedly unleashes a cascade of events that could forever change her life. A forgotten self-confidence emerges. Desires and temptations that have been subordinate to duty now demand exploration.
Soon Rachel is torn between the comfort and respectability of being a Grosse Pointe housewife and a relationship with a man in whom she finds unique artistic inspiration.
The exhibition at a renowned local art gallery of her masterfully-rendered paintings brings her into the orbit of the Grosse Pointe elite. But a would-be provocateur threatens to turn her private triumph into a public embarrassment and end her marriage.
In a community where news of scandal can travel faster than the wind off Lake St. Clair, Rachel must weigh the satisfaction in fulfilling her potential as an artist against the cost to her reputation, marriage, and family.