Maya Marinovich has lost her husband and baby daughter in a freak car crash. Why did she survive? Should she even exist? Maya travels from Boston to San Francisco, embarking on a personal pilgrimage, desperate for a way forward. First Maya gets involved briefly, but passionately, with the leader of a Japanese cult movement called The Lost Tribe. Next Maya lands a job as an assistant property manager for The Bon Vivants, a group of artists, dancers, writers, and musicians who live in a co-housing building in Oakland called The Laundry. After a summer of making friends, and beginning to enjoy life again, Maya learns details about the accident that send her spiraling back into depression. In the final section, Maya meets Buddhist teachers Eli Ronen and his wife Reva, and begins a lifelong process of healing and transformation.