Carol Bashuk

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

You know that old saying “if we are still single when we’re 35, we should get married?” Well, Maggie Vine made that vow with two different people at two very different stages of her life. And they both showed up. Maggie Vine’s life is going extra-medium. At 35, she’s pursuing her dreams of being a singer and being a mother—though neither are successfully panning out. So when Garrett Scholl—stifled hedge-fund manager by day but electrifying aspiring rock singer by night—comes to her 35th birthday party with the intention to kiss Maggie senseless, it feels like one piece might click into place.