Two women. One unusual cookbook. And a friendship that will show them how to savour each moment . . .

Kate Parker is about to turn forty and her world has fallen apart. Her seemingly rock-solid relationship is suddenly up in the air, and she's been forced to move back in with her mother. In need of some distraction, Kate (reluctantly) volunteers at her local retirement home.

Cecily Finn is a ninety-seven-year-old resident of Lauderdale House for Exceptional Ladies. Her tongue is as sharp as her mind but lately she's lost her spark, seemingly resigned to the Imminent End.

But then Cecily prescribes Kate a self-help recipe book with a difference - and so begins an unlikely friendship between two lonely and stubborn souls.

Together, these two very different women - one near the end of her life, one adrift somewhere in the middle - will show each other that food is for feasting, life is for living, and that it's always essential to ask for more.