It’s 1938, and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to Reno, Nevada. But they have to wait six weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need. Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St. Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.

After falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning must write a new book for the first time in decades. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion to monitor her progress, she’s put to work right away --- as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old son. As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation --- and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.