How To Pet Porcupines

22 year old, Gracie Martin, has had an abrupt arrival to her new found independence. Finally moving out of her parents house in Pennsylvania, she accepts a job in Rhode Island as a governess to a wealthy couple's two young children. Gracie is excited to work on her novel during her time at the Spencer residence, but finds it hard to concentrate around the couple's rocky attempts at saving their marriage. The father of the household and Rhode Island senator, Silas Spencer, brings home nothing but stress and less than honorable politicians while his kids remain lonesome and confused about their changing environment. Gracie attempts to show them a normal upbringing throughout their parents' turbulent divorce. When she feels she's finally given the family some peace, she branches out trying to find a social life of her own. Unfortunately, this leads her to an unsuccessful date with a polite but awkward young man. Gracie is disappointed but, even more so when she learns that he is not willing to take no for an answer. Slowly the coincidences that occur around her start to seem more frequent and less coincidental. In a place where Gracie feels totally isolated she finds herself slipping into a spiral of madness.