Frances and her best friend (and ex-girlfriend) Bobbi become friends with an older couple, Nick and Melissa, and their lives become entwined, which, as far as novel summaries go, could mean anything, right? But Sally Rooney's prose gives Frances' first-person narration such naked vulnerability from the first page that the connections and tensions between four polite people (well, three polite people and Bobbi) become fascinating. Frances probes her own emotions with insight and frankness, and guesses at the feelings and motives of others with such compassionate curiosity that it all becomes incredibly engrossing.