By all accounts, Tony, Charis, and Roz are very different women—they have different interests, different career paths, and different views of the world. Tony is a solitary and introverted academic. Charis would rather till her garden and meditate than examine the world around her. Roz’s life revolves around business, profits, and hobnobbing with the social elite. In most tales, these three paths would never cross, much less run congruently for 20 years, but their shared trauma is a unifying force that holds them together despite their considerable differences. In addition to uniting disparate personalities, a common enemy can provide a tangible sense of power and even comfort when facing uncertainty: “Instead of believing that bad things happen for no reason, enemies give us a sense of control, allowing us to attribute bad things to a clear cause that can be understood, contained, and controlled” (Rathje, Steve. “Do We Need a Common Enemy?” Psychology Today, 17 December 2018).

Tony, Charis, and Roz experience a great deal of uncertainty in their lives. In college, Tony focuses on her studies to compensate for her social anxiety. As Charis deals with her past trauma, she navigates totally new ground with Billy, her first love and a fugitive to boot.