Love: A Story begins as Michael, a forty-year-old prep school teacher in Berkeley, is driving home from school and sees a baby stroller rolling down the street toward him. He slams on the brakes, jumps out of his car, and catches the stroller. The moment is symbolic: His wife is about to become pregnant and he wants to be a father more than anything in the world. The narrative moves back to meeting his wife four years earlier, when she is a young Singaporean-American, a nude model and a student in the chemistry Ph.D. program at Berkeley. They fall in love and marry. At the wedding, his friends are concerned about the age difference but agree that these two could “make this crazy thing work.” She struggles to heal her childhood wounds as an immigrant in America while he wishes to recreate the warmth of his small-town boyhood. The novel follows the development of their relationship and the decision each makes about whether to remain committed to a marriage that is less than perfect.

At every turn, the decisions the characters make are laden with possibilities either emerging or fading. With a deft hand, Smoot asks us to consider the nature of love, life, and storytelling.