Ruth Young is the book’s protagonist. Living at home again after a failed engagement, Ruth is learning how to build a life that she wants to live. She is humorous and a deep thinker, recording observations both quotidian and profound in her journal during her year living at home. She regrets decisions that she made in her life, such as dropping out of college to follow her ex-fiancé across the country and shows a real desire to figure out what is important after so many years away from home.

One thing that preoccupies Ruth is her belief that she can’t decide what “matters” and what does not. Feeling guilty for the time she spent away from her family, she writes: “What I want to know is what counted for something and what counted not at all. Now I feel like a shit for spending that time [...] on what turns out not to matter, and neglecting the things that did, and do” (133). This quote illustrates Ruth’s desire to have someone else or some outside omnipotent force determine what is important and what is not. Ruth struggles to decide this for herself until she learns to let go of her guilt about leaving, embracing the time she is spending with her family in the present instead.