TV trivia and history fans who enjoy summer-style reading will quickly devour this story and its references to TV shows past, present, and fictional. Lehmann introduces us to Daphne Wells, a TV lover who has the perfect job: curator at the Museum of Television and Radio.
Daphne meets Charlie, also a TV aficionado, who has written several unsold TV show pilots. As their relationship develops, Charlie works as an English teacher and has the opportunity to buy his grandmother's house in New Rochelle. He decides to buy the house and propose to Daphne.
But Daphne struggles with the thought of living life like Rob and Laura Petrie in the quiet suburbs of New Rochelle, leaving her love of city life in New York behind. The move would shorten Charlie's commute, but lengthen Daphne's. Throughout the story, we watch Daphne grapple with decisions regarding the wedding, the move, and her life with stable and "good man" Charlie.
A good novel has several dimensions and in this one, we learn of the special relationship between Daphne and her older sister Billie - a bond created by the death of both of their parents in a plane crash.
Meanwhile, we follow her life at the museum and learn about the themes behind each decade of television. Jonathan Hill, the book's version of Steven Boccho or David E. Kelley and television producer of the hot and shallow TV show Supermodels, stops by the museum to look for inspiration as he's run out of creative juice.
As Daphne and Jonathan get to know each other, Daphne hopes to link him with her sister, Billie, who is in a relationship with a married man. In reading about the interactions of the characters, Daphne compares her life to TV shows and lets them get in the way of tuning in to Charlie.
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