Recently widowed, Sabrina Olensky returns to her home in Ohio where she seeks solace from the peaceful lake setting of her childhood as she confronts issues that have destroyed relationships with both of her surviving children. Told partly through flashbacks by both Sasbrina and her college sweetheart Francisco, Balancing Act is a tale beginning with Sabrina's well meaning but overprotective mother whose forced involvement in her adult child's life results in a horror which Sabrina hides for forty years. Underlying the story is Francisco's unwavering though bewildered devotion as Sabrina deserts him and ultimately marries someone else. Balancing Act is a novel about both life's cruelties and times of joy, and how the balancing of the good with the bad ultimately leads to an unanticipated new level of relationship.