Liz Dunn is a lonely, middle-aged, overweight woman, living a mundane life in Vancouver. Resigned to her life of a boring clerical job, a small dingy home unit, and strained relationships with her immediate family. She has come to except the way her life is and always be.
Suddenly, one day, her life takes a different track as the Hale-Bop comet streaks high across the sky. An event in her past, when she was a teenager, and the consequences of that event, comes back into her life - her son!
Jeremy is in his early twenties and is enduring his own problems. A young life of foster homes and various jobs has left him aimless. At the same time his body is destroying itself, limiting his future.
The coming together of these two people seem to come at the right time for both of them. As one needs emotional support, the other needs physical support. Jeremy, with his positive outlook and determination to live as much as possible, brings Liz out of her shell and changes her life. Jeremy broadens her horizons and possibilities to the world. Liz, at the same time, provides Jeremy with a home and material comfort that he needs. So, for a short time, a familial bond forms between the two.
After Jeremy's death another bolt from the blue brings another change in direction to Liz's life once again, and events lead her to Austria to confront another element from her past that connect her to herself and Jeremy - Jeremy's father Klaus. A middle aged man, Klaus is lonely as well, due to his own mental health problems. He and Liz form a connection, and through the memory of Jeremy, develop a relationship. Suddenly life doesn't seem lonely for either of them, and companionship replaces solitariness for the future.
Coupland's novel focuses on how seemingly ordinary lives are, deep below the surface, extraordinary in their own unique way. Also, no matter what type of person we are or what type of lives we lead, all of us need to connect with other people.
