When January arrives at the Michigan beach house her late father left her, she has a plan. She's going to push through her writer's block and (finally) finish writing her overdue novel. She's also going to purge the house of any remnants of her father's affair with "that Woman." But the writing and the purging don't come as easily as January had hoped. When memories, regrets, and old fears keep January from focusing, she instead kicks off a writing competition with her literary rival, Augustus Everette.