After she discovers her husband's infidelity, Rachel Cohen, reeling from hurt and shame, escapes to a rental house in the idyllic town of Woodbury, near Boston.

She winds up next door to her colleague Cynthia Meyers, who—unlike Rachel—seems to have everything in this town where parents are high achievers, children excel, and problems are sealed inside well-tended houses. Cynthia's a successful VP in corporate giving, who helped fund Rachel's latest environmental project for elementary kids. Cynthia's husband is a pioneering researcher in breakthrough cancer treatments. Their only child, Lauren, is set to graduate high school in the spring.

Pretenses shatter the day an ambulance pulls up in front of the Meyers's house and Rachel watches helplessly as Lauren is carried away on a stretcher. Amid their turmoil, Rachel and the Meyers' lives begin to intertwine. When they adopt an ancient spiritual practice called the Counting of the Omer, it leads them down unconventional pathways for answers.

Evening Begins the Day shines a light on the complexity of two families in crisis and their transformation from isolation to community, loneliness to hope and joy.