Madeleine Hanna is a college student in the 1980s. She has a friend named Mitchell Grammaticus, who would love to be more than friends. And she has a boyfriend named Leonard, who alternates between bouts of mania and depression. The title alludes to 'the marriage plot'- or the fact that all of those books by authors like Jane Austen seemed to revolve around finding a husband and ending with marriage.
But for Madeleine, life is not a Jane Austen novel. Marriage is a struggle- especially when the one she loves pushes her away. For all characters, it's a story of self-discovery and coming to terms with beginnings and endings that aren't always happy.
You could say that it's a love story and that they come in all different styles, but I would hesitate before recommending this to your typical reader of romance. The ending is rather bitter.
