Sarah Gold’s got roommate problems, but she’s not about to admit it to her overbearing parents, who think she can’t make any decisions for herself. They weren’t crazy about her living alone in the big city of Chicago anyway. “Why not settle down with a nice Jewish boy?” her mother constantly argues. But Sarah longs for something more — to change the world in even a small way.
Through a chance encounter at a local diner, she finds a huge Victorian brick boarding house run by the grandmotherly Sophie. Young people come and go, as they make their way in life. Could this makeshift family be what Sarah’s been longing for?