This sultry, tortured tale follows Lucy, a sex worker, as she insinuates herself into the lives of a married couple. Lucy’s obsession begins when she meets the husband at her brothel and he turns her down (a first—Lucy is in high demand). But soon Caroline finds herself at a seaside residency in Massachusetts, where she falls in love with a local. As she gets to know his childhood friends, whom Jackson renders vividly, further complications mount; one of the group, it emerges, is pregnant with his child. The novel is ultimately a study of the season in life when friendships are tested by growing families and by the realization of ambition.