Life hasnt always been perfect for Abe and Cassandra Green, but an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. Abe is a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new boat. Cassandra is a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, theyve made things work. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. A love story that begins with the end of a marriage, The Violet Hour follows a modern family through past and present, from the funeral home in the Washington suburbs where Cassandra and her siblings grow up to the San Francisco clinic where Abe and Cassandra first meet. The Greens must come to terms with the fragility of their intimacy, the strange legacies they inherit from their parents, and the kind of people they want to be.