Eve, the novel’s protagonist, is a 46-year-old divorcée and single mother, who is executive director of Haddington Senior Center. Eve is fit and “pretty-for-her-age” (147) with long, dark hair, until she dyes it a “luminous shade of golden brown” (260). Eve’s sexuality takes center stage when Brendan goes off to college, and she is labeled a MILF by the people she encounters. Eve decides to explore the label on her own terms through her investigation of online pornography. While she initially feels like an outsider looking in, she begins to replay the pornographic scenarios in her real-life interactions and goes as far as getting involved with a female colleague and her son’s former classmate. After the hiatus of marriage and motherhood, Eve’s sexual reawakening brings her up to date with modern methods of courtship, such as sending naked photographs. Eventually, however, Eve returns to a heteronormative, monogamous relationship with George the plumber, her pornography-inspired ventures being an ephemeral if enlightening chapter in her life.

Eve is principled and intellectually curious, and although she initially fears empty nesting, she comes to see Brendan’s exit from the home as a means of expanding her social and intellectual life.