It's 1969, the night the Americans land on the moon, and Norris Lamb catches a glimpse of Vida dancing half-naked in the moonlight. Thinking herself alone, Vida dances with such wild abandon and passion that Norris falls instantly in love. Having lived his whole fifty-five years of life in the quiet town of Hursley, Norris had given up hope of ever having anything momentous happen to him, and he is stunned to find himself in love with a woman he has known, but never noticed, his whole life.

Vida, since the age of twenty, has devoted herself to the all-consuming job of being nanny to Manford Perry, a mentally disabled young man living at the empty Perry manor. In all that time, Vida has never had a vacation, never left Hursley, and she, too, imagines for herself a life of uneventfulness. Now, poised on the cusp of love, the shy and awkward Norris must find a way of expressing his feelings before he loses Vida forever. It is through the help of Manford's strange and gentle intelligence that the two lovers find their way toward one another's hearts.