Smith's story finds Herb Atlas as a very old man, dying of cancer, taking care of the much younger woman who ideally would be taking care of him. Susan, his wife, has Alzheimer's. He hires Dee Dee, a young woman with a past she's trying to forget, to trim Susan's nails, but Dee Dee's vibrant personality brings the smile back to Susan's face and she gradually takes over more and more of Susan's care.
The past the younger woman is trying to put behind her involves sex trafficking, which she was forced into when she was just 14. With little schooling, no money, a baby on the way and a boyfriend about to abandon her, Dee Dee nevertheless tries to stay optimistic.
Then Herb's family decides it's time to put both him and Susan where they can receive professional care, news the old man does not receive with grace. When he offers Dee Dee a ride home in his old sports car, which he is not supposed to drive anymore, the pair have so much fun that they keep driving, from Key West north toward Disney World, both having the time of their lives ... until the state of Florida puts out an alert for an old man in a canary-yellow Porsche.
In a short, surprisingly potty-mouthed novel, Smith contrasts youth, a time of dreaming of a brighter future, with old age, a time of remembering the brighter past. She demonstrates the two conditions may have more in common than one might think.
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