When it finally dawns on Augusta Iris that her husband has left her, she "goes out from underneath herself," pulls the shades, climbs into bed, and pretty much just quits her life. Angel Angel is a book about traveling down safe familiar paths only to find yourself suddenly in unexpected places.

The story revolves around Augusta and her two sons, Henry and Mathew, who have had little to do with each other but are now forced to cope. At first Mathew, so overwhelmed by his mother's sadness, lies "like a cadaver up in his old room," his heart banging away in his chest. Henry, on the other hand, tries to conquer the "snake hole of fear winding its way down through his stomach." He smokes pot with abandon, takes a job mowing lawns. Then one day he brings home Bette Mack, his new girlfriend.

And in her own businesslike, gum-snapping way, it is Bette who ends up rattling the stillness of the Iris household, bursting into rooms without knocking, blowing out huge clouds of cigarette smoke, and leaving everyone stunned and blinking in her wake.