The leafy garden district of Oak Knoll, North Carolina. Valerie Alston-Holt, the university's ecology teacher, a well-known resident of the area, and an important member of the book club, lives here. Valerie's life, although widowed, is quite carefree with her talented, college-going, musician son, Xavier, until the air-conditioning entrepreneur Brad Whitman moves in next door with his wife and adopted daughter, Juniper. With the work involved in building the house, Brad also endangered the century-old oak tree in his neighbor's yard, while Valerie protects it as an enthusiastic environmentalist. The conflict later turns into an irreconcilable dispute, then leads to a legal path, and the tense relationship is only further complicated by the blossoming romance of the two teenage children. The boundary line dividing the plot imperceptibly becomes a much deeper fault line affecting social inequalities that are still present today. And the two families inevitably drift towards tragedy. What does good neighborliness really mean? How can we live side by side if we don't agree on something? Where are the moral boundaries beyond real fences? And how long are we responsible for the other person? In the course of a very everyday life situation, the Ordinary neighborhood asks such cutting questions that can affect us at any time, as soon as we fence off a piece of land. The new book by the successful author of Z - Zelda Fitzgerald's novel is a heartbreaking family and love story, but also a provocative social vision.