A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with cancer. In each of these people, there is a common need to talk about themselves and to have an audience. With wisdom and humor, the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend shows what happens the narrator is confronted by an extraordinary request, and in this thought-provoking novel—presented here in large print format—she is drawn into a transformative experience of her own.