Happy Birthday (Abridged)

Valerie Wyatt is the high priestess of elegance: She has built an empire on how to entertain, how to decorate, how to live beautifully, and is at the top of her game with licensing arrangements for fine fabrics, furniture, wallpaper; six books; and a highly rated TV show. Valerie's daughter, April, is a classically trained chef and the workaholic proprietor of a comfortable, popular downtown New York restaurant. They couldn't be happier in their chosen fields—or more different in their attitudes. Yet as each faces a major birthday milestone—Valerie her 60th and April her 30th—neither has had a significant relationship for years and both are wistful at what they've sacrificed for success. That is about to change, after a chance encounter in an elevator and one holiday weekend indiscretion...