Katrina Rose knows there are two things cancer patients can't do: laugh and date. She tries to challenge each one of those assumptions at every last turn. When she finally receives surgery to remove her tumor, she wants to go back to a normal life, but finds herself going to the all-women therapy group for cancer victims and survivors every week. After an aggravating discussion that threatens to shatter Kat's devotion to her group, Carmen walks in and completely changes Katrina's goals.Carmen Sykes is a tall, beautiful woman, who just lost her girlfriend of cancer. She teaches at the local university and is the curator at the local museum. After she argues with a woman about cancer's perception in the mainstream media, Kat knows she has found her intellectual -- and physical -- match.The two women immediately start an overwhelming affair that lasts into the final days of autumn. They go shopping for forbidden fruit in the local farmer's market, talk about myth and art and cancer as they stay in bed all day. But soon, Kat realizes Carmen's hiding something she can't quite recognize or name. When a figure from Carmen's past turns up, the truth about what she's really growing in her garden may surprise -- and also relieve -- Kat of all her worries.