Hopwood County

Cassie Claiborne's world is riddled with problems beyond her control: her hard-living father has another wife; her stoic, long-suffering mother is incapable of moving herself mentally away from the kitchen window; her closest friends, Puck and Emmy, are adolescent harbingers of their own doomed futures. Frustrated by her inability to care deeply enough for so many troubled souls, Cassie finds in the local pool hall an oasis of green felt where she can master objects and restrain her emotions.

The Used World Emporium is the sprawling antique store where Hazel, Claudia, and Rebekah pass their days surrounded by dusty furniture, cast-off clothes, and ancient housewares. But with the unexpected arrival of two babies and the unfolding of not one but three love stories, each spanning generations, their formerly used world becomes new again.