Siena, a 21st century woman, has so far managed to avoid the tick of the biological clock ??? her high-powered career as a stylist, making over a succession of tired, fraught housewives, has given her a horror of the toll a family can take on a woman Without children she can control her own wonderful, ordered life Only thing is, her husband Charlie longs for a baby In 1959, Barbara is married to Ryder, an airline pilot, for twenty-four years Her life revolves around her house and family and she is happy that it is that way Then, she meets the young and brilliant Alexander who tells her that she has a mind and a life of her own And, to her astonishment, Barbara is seduced into a different way of thinking