Rose Drury and her partner, Lucy, have just learned that their son, Roger, is considered to be below average — at the third percentile rank in most areas, according to the pediatrician. Although Rose herself is a developmental psychologist and knows all of the "right" answers and "correct" things to do, she finds that she is all too human, struggling with the opinions, social pressures and off-handed cruelty that can beset the mother of a child who is different.

With humour and desperation in equal measure, Rose sifts through her life history, looking for the definitive moment that could explain how she and her son got to this point. In this sparkling and empathetic novel, Marion Douglas digs into a young mother's uncertainty, fear, and hard-won wisdom as she and her son — an odd and loveable giant of unpredictability — forge a path forward together.