West Palm Beach, 1999. A phone call summons fifty-eight-year-old Cherie Anderson from the frozen tundra of her Minnesota home to help her two mothers–Dale, the mother who left her when she was five and is facing eviction from her budget apartment complex, and Marlys, the mother who raised her from that moment on and who’s dying, but won’t tell her daughter. Cherie needs a reason to stay in town long enough to give Dale the help she’s finally asked for and Marlys the help she won’t admit she needs, because she doesn’t want to acknowledge to her daughter that she’s sick. And she needs a project to distract her pregnant daughter Laura, whose marriage has fallen apart weeks before her due date. The South Florida Senior Synchronized Swimming Competition seems to be the answer. The publicity from winning the competition, along with the ten thousand dollar prize money, could help save the Soleil City apartment complex. And Laura, who used to captain a dance team, might be distracted enough to preserve her sanity. While Dale and Laura are preoccupied with preparing for the competition, Cherie can research treatments for the illness Marlys’ won’t admit she has.
