Clover is a death doula -- she spends time with people who are dying. Sometimes she is the only person who visits them; other times she helps the family of the patient, as well as the patient. While comfortable being with dying people, Clover is less comfortable with the living. For the times when she doesn't have a job, she hangs out in her apartment with her pets and binge-watches romantic movies.
Her parents died when she was six; after that she was reared by her grandfather. But now she's 36 years old and he's been dead for 13 years. She hasn't ever dated and she does everything she can to avoid being around people, other than her grandfather's friend Leo, who lives in her apartment building. Sometimes, though, she needs a people-fix, and she gets these in a kind of anonymous way, by going to death cafés, gatherings where people can talk to each other, ask questions, and maybe get advice. She runs into a guy named Sebastian at two different death cafés, and she can't believe that he seems interested in her. That terrifies her as much as it inspires her. When he asks her to meet his dying grandmother, Claudia, a woman who has not been told that she is dying, Clover is conflicted, but agrees. Claudia was a photographer who gave up her work when she got married. She is still a spunky woman, one of the highlights of the novel.
The reader is expecting that Clover's life is going to change, and it does, just not in the way it seems to be heading. The book emphasizes really living, and it also showcases regrets people have had about what they did (or didn't do) when they had the chance. It's a thoughtful book.
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