Becky and Elliot are idealistic and artistic twenty-somethings who met in college, married shortly after graduation and are expecting their first child. They live on the upper west side of Manhattan. She's black, and he's Jewish, but they are convinced that their love, education and devotion to culture are all they need for a life of happiness despite their apparent differences, their families and the social and political climate of the 1980's. When their baby dies just ten days after his home birth, they are forced to confront their vulnerability, and, in their grief, to seek solace in spiritualism. If you've even been in love, given birth, experienced the death of a loved one, or wondered what happens when life ends, this is a novel that will make you laugh and cry and ultimately celebrate being alive as Becky and Elliot learn lessons about life and love they never learned in school.