Sylvia Sandon always swore she wouldn't become her mother. But one August morning, she finds herself walking the same prodigal path as the fervently religious yet faithless Elaine. . . into an affair she feels powerless to resist.

Against the backdrop of California brushfires and fundamentalist Christian mores, 12-year-old Sylvia agreed to hold a secret that would devour her family's dream of happiness. She fled her home as the 1970s burned out. Now struggling to create a better life in small town New England, Sylvia nonetheless feels caught in the coils of history: she confronts the embers of own her dying marriage, the all-consuming needs of two daughters and her faltering artistic career. Then Tai Rosen --- the father of her most difficult student --- ignites an unexpected passion and a familiar betrayal that could illuminate the past, even as it jeopardizes everything dear.

OUTSIDE THE ORDINARY WORLD reveals what lies beneath the surface of infidelity. But at its heart, it is the story of the powerful, sometimes disturbing bond between mothers and daughters, and the shimmering line between self-revelation and self-destruction.