The Reverse Commute tells the story of two women. The first story belongs to a young girl who works at a boring editing job in a cubicle and is disappointed with life after college. Her story begins one year before a fateful company picnic on a snowy night when she barely makes the train back home to Boston. She takes the last available seat across from a strikingly handsome young man. In alternating chapters, there is the story of Sophie Ryan, a middle-aged woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her story begins the night she returns home from the tragic company picnic. Sophie is also stuck in a dead-end cubicle job that barely pays the bills. Also dealing with her aging parents and her son's failure to launch after college, she dreams of a better, more interesting life running a bed and breakfast with her easily distracted husband, Ray, a self-employed house painter. Adding to her problems, she and Ray live in an old New Hampshire farmhouse where endless, humorous calamities occur. One night when Ray is out of town, Sophie has a vivid, passionate dream starring Ryan Gosling that inspires her to hatch a plan to change her life and fulfill her dreams of escaping the farmhouse and her job. How does the company picnic change the lives of these two women? How are Sophie and the young girl connected? The Reverse Commute is filled with small, perfect observations of daily life and relevant themes that are pertinent to most people's lives in the early part of the 21st century. It is a portrait of real life, its twists and turns, the obstacles and speed bumps we all face, and the circumstances beyond our control. But in the end, The Reverse Commute reminds us it is never too late to be brave and embrace second chances.