BREATHING LESSONS covers the events of a day in the life of Maggie Moran, nearing fifty, married to Ira and with two children. Her eternal optimism and her passion for sorting out other people's lives and willing them to fall in love is severly tested one hot summer day. Maggie and Ira drive to attend the funeral of the husband of Serena, Maggie's childhood friend. During the course of the journey, with its several unexpected detours, Anne Tyler shows us all there is to know about a marriage: the expectations, the disappointments, the way children can create storms in a family, the way that everything - and nothing - changes.