In a University town during the present time, ladies have a book club where they are studying The Tale of Genji, the worlds first novel written by a lady from Heian Japan, with a graduate student. The ladies are going through tumultuous times that echo those of the book they are reading; a husband is dying, a marriage is falling apart, a decision about retirement has to be made. Old loves re-appear, the bereaved are able to love again, though not in the same old way, new men appear and court the