●Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect. Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job, new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm of her hand — until a single phone call altered the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold. Now, at forty-two, as independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is navigating a parent’s difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked, struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katie — impulsive, artistic, rebellious — is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace. Then, just when least... ●安妮‧佛格森曾經是曼哈頓的年輕建築師。她才華洋溢，擁有姣好的外貌。那時她剛找到人生第一份工作，住進全新的公寓，也交了個新男友，似乎每件事都照著她的計畫進行，直到她接到一通電話，徹底地改變了她的人生。一夜之間，她成了姊姊留下的三個小孩的養母。這是她曾經答應過姊姊的承諾，雖然她必須無限期地擱置原本的生涯規劃，但她沒有後悔做出這個決定。現在，四十二歲的安妮，比以前更加獨立自主，擁有一份滿意的工作，以及生命中最重要的家庭。安妮對單身生活悠然自得並泰然處之，她也無暇分心在其它的事物上。然而隨著姪子與姪女們進入青春期，他們要面對許多重大的挑戰，就像其他父母要面對的難題那樣，安妮在該給孩子支柱還是放手讓孩子做自己兩種選擇中掙扎許久，等孩子離家念書後，又要面對突來的空巢期。三個孩子中，二十八歲的大姊麗茲是個工作狂，她辛勤打拚，是位高權重的《時尚》雜誌編輯。麗茲從不讓任何男性有機會一親芳澤。二十四歲的泰德則是個嚴肅並且認真於學業的法律系學生。一名年紀比泰德年長，歷練比他豐富，並且育有一名小孩的熟女吸引了泰德的目光，這位熟女帶給泰德的影響將會遠遠超出他所期望的。安妮最小的姪女，二十一歲的藝術系學生凱蒂，衝動又叛逆，有著藝術家的思維。凱蒂即將作出決定，進入一個與她原本的生活完全不同的世界，她不知該如何做心理準備，但已下定決心要大膽擁抱生命。就在安妮最預料不到的時候，一次機遇再次以最無法預料的方式改變了她了生命的旅程。