When a person chooses a new home, it’s rarely a decision based on the people who live nearby. The homebuyer’s focus is typically on the property and the neighborhood surrounding it. But once the person moves in, their life will invariably intersect with those of the neighbors.
Roy, Wendy and their daughter, Shy, draw a crowd when they move into Cobble Hill, an upscale neighborhood in Brooklyn. Roy is a bestselling British novelist, but the family is ready for a change. They move across the ocean to Wendy’s native New York City, where Roy’s desire to blend in quickly becomes impossible. He’s struggling with his next book, and though she doesn’t admit it to her husband, Wendy is also having trouble with her new magazine job.
Soon, Roy is pulled into his neighbor Tupper’s marital drama when Tupper asks Roy to catsit. Tupper’s wife, Elizabeth, is an artist who comes and goes on her whims, and Tupper is anxious and eager for her return. Nearby, Stuart and Mandy face challenges of their own. The couple fell in love in high school, and Stuart found fame as a rock star. But those days are over, and now Stuart works a stable but boring job. Mandy is frustrated with her body’s changes as she enters her mid-30s, and she lies about a medical diagnosis to cover her inertia and grab her husband’s attention, which has recently become divided by Peaches, the elementary school nurse, ever since he met her while picking up his sick son, Ted. Meanwhile, Peaches and her husband, Greg, were longtime fans of Stuart’s band, and she indulges her crush. Peaches and Greg’s son, Liam, doesn’t know what to make of the tension between his parents.
In Cobble Hill, the residents’ lives intersect and tangle with one another as school dramas unfold and neighbors host social gatherings. As the couples examine their significant others’ relationships with the neighbors, author Cecily von Ziegesar (creator of Gossip Girl) spins a fast-paced, funny tale of the sometimes confusing but often entertaining ways neighbors relate to one another.
