It is 2007 and twice widowed Edith, a bored senior volunteer at UCLA Medical Center's information desk, wonders philosophically if life in general is just a dim and grim waiting room for death. Her son Phil is a self-absorbed dermatologist whose chosen specialty guarantees his dealing only with external human biology. Naturally, Phil's solipsism infects his wife and two kids. Then Carolyn See deploys a post-9/11 bio-terror threat, which serves as the fear-of-mortality bomb the family needs to question and correct their dysfunctional life choices. Despite using a global tragedy as a wakeup call for her characters, See fails to pump the heart of the book, There Will Never Be Another You, much past a murmur.