In the Lonely Hours

After a demanding emergency-room shift, Dr. Theodora Brennan needs quiet. Her new neighbor Catherine Matthews, a former concert pianist, has other routines, including music that carries through their shared wall late at night. Frustration brings them into contact before either has reason to look beyond the inconvenience. Gradually, their disagreements make room for a different kind of attention. Catherine keeps the world at a careful distance, while Theo uses other people's crises to avoid confronting her own. In the hours when neither can maintain those defenses quite so easily, the women begin to recognize what they might offer each other, provided they are willing to accept it.