Breathing Lessons covers the events of a day in the life of Maggie Moran, nearing 50, married to Ira and with two children.

Her eternal optimism and her inexhaustible passion for sorting out other people's lives and willing them to fall in love is severely tested one hot summer day. Maggie and Ira drive from Baltimore to Deer Lick to attend the funeral of the husband of Serena, Maggie's childhood friend.

During the course of the journey, with its several unexpected detours into the lives of old friends and grown children, we see all there is to know about a marriage: the expectations; the disappointments; the way children can create storms in a family; the way the wife and husband can fall in love all over again; the way that everything—and nothing—changes.