Eleanor is a beleaguered woman living in Seattle with her husband Joe, a renowned hand surgeon, and her son Timby, a third-grader at the Galer Street School that was first introduced in Maria Semple's preceding novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

At the start of the book, Eleanor decides to improve herself by adopting the mantra that "today will be different" and setting attainable goals for the day.

However, things do not go according to plan in Eleanor's day, and she finds herself having to deal with a missing husband, a sick son and a mystery lunch date.

[7] Isabella Biedenharn of Entertainment Weekly gave the novel a "B+" grade, concluding that: "Today's tone veers wildly from satire to tragedy, but Semple is such a deft observer of human foibles that she glues it all together with wit and glitter — a master fabulist, just like Eleanor.

"[8] Writing for USA Today, Steph Cha gave the book three stars out of four, noting that it is "unrelentingly entertaining" despite being "a bit messy".