Ben is an aspiring travel writer who hasn’t gotten over the divorce from his wife, who was his childhood sweetheart. After a series of failed dates, he posts a drunken manifesto online, looking for someone to spend a “Gap Weekend” with him: a weekend date up to wine country where they can take a pause from their lives and pretend they are a real life long term couple.

Emily answers the ad, and their experience that weekend fundamentally changes them both. They both discover that being in a long term relationship, even a pretend one, is not an easy task. The novel is based on the award winning feature film.