By 1951, that lifeline reached Laura Brown in Los Angeles. Trapped in the suffocating perfection of a post-war suburban dream, Laura held Virginia’s finished book in her trembling hands. She looked at her adoring husband and her young, perceptive son, Richie, and felt an incomprehensible urge to vanish. Reading Virginia's words about a woman's internal world, Laura realized she was drowning in a life that did not belong to her.

This is the story of how a single day unfolded across three different centuries, bound together by the relentless, ticking rhythm of the hours. The Author: Richmond, 1923

By 2001, the echo manifested in Clarissa Vaughan in New York City. Nicknamed "Mrs. Dalloway" by her brilliant, dying former lover, Richard, Clarissa spent her morning buying flowers for a party he would never truly attend.