Janie Zimmerman

Janie is a single-mother and architect, raising Noah alone in Brooklyn. Her own mother, Ruthie, died several years earlier and Janie still feels the loss deeply. Memories of her mother constantly remind Janie of the past, making the present difficult for Janie to pull herself into.

Before Noah’s birth, Janie celebrated her 40th birthday with a spontaneous trip to Trinidad. Overworked at her architectural firm, Janie cheers herself up with a solo vacation. She meets a handsome stranger on her last night and the two make love on the beach, never to meet again. Nine months later, Noah is born. Without the contact information or medical history of his father, Janie cannot help feeling more alone with her son and his psychological problems.

When she meets Denise Crawford, the lines of race, age and class are blurred as Janie realizes that the two have more in...