A fifty-year-old Bridge club provides an unexpected connection across a generational divide between mother and daughter.

After a lifetime of defining herself against her mother’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell generation, Betsy Lerner, an enthusiastic member of the Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll generation, found herself back home in the suburban Connecticut town that represented everything she wanted to flee: namely the traditional life her mother stood for.

Yet when Roz needed help after surgery, Betsy stepped in. She expected a week of tense civility; what she got were the Bridge Ladies.

Tentatively at first, Betsy became a regular fixture at her mother’s Monday Bridge club. Unexpectedly, the Bridge Ladies became a Greek chorus, a catalyst for change between Betsy and Roz as they reconciled years of painful misunderstandings and harrowing silences. The Bridge table became the common ground they never had.

Darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies weaves the histories of the ladies with those of Betsy and her mother across a lifetime of missed opportunities. The result is an unforgettable story of a hard-won—but never-too-late—bond between mother and daughter.