Clementine is about to turn 30 years old. She lives in New York City and works in book publishing. She inherited her Aunt Analea’s apartment (unit “B4”, like “before”) after she died from overdosing on sleeping medication (although whether this was intended or accidental is unclear). Clementine misses Analea because she used to always encourage Clementine to chase the moon and “fake it ‘til she made it”.
“I didn’t need to be fixed. I just needed… to be reminded that I was human” (96).
“That was the thing about my aunt, she lived in the moment because she always figured it’d be her last. There was never a rhyme or reason to it -- even when she was healthy, she lived like she was dying, the taste of mortality on her tongue” (243).
“Life doesn't always go as planned. The trick is to make the most of it when it doesn’t” (258).
Clementine finds out that Analea’s apartment is truly “magical”, but in the literal sense. A mysterious man named Iwan (26 years old) shows up and says he got permission to sublet the apartment for the summer while Analea was traveling to Norway with 22-year-old Clementine. Clementine is reminded about doing what makes her happy (which includes taking up painting in the bathtub again, where she can avoid messes).
Once Clementine officially falls in love with Iwan and his cooking, the apartment stops sending her back in time. Clementine has no choice but to look for present-day Iwan (now 32 years old), who has since climbed the ladder from dishwasher to head chef and goes by the name “James Ashton”.
Clementine’s book publishing company is trying to strike a deal with Iwan’s new cookbook, but Iwan is hesitant to work with Clementine since he was heartbroken over how their romantic timing didn’t align. Clementine complains about this to her friends during their “Whine and Wine” therapy sessions. It turns out that decades ago, Analea had fallen in love with Iwan’s mom (Vera, a previous resident of the apartment), but again, their timing didn’t work out. Iwan had tried to look up Clementine over the past seven years, but he didn’t think that the past Clementine would believe him about time travel, so he tried to date other girls in the meantime, but never found true love.
When Clementine gets an early tour of Iwan’s new restaurant, she’s disappointed that he’s giving in to the pressure of being “inventive” instead of staying true to his previous dream of creating a home-like environment. So instead of there being people laughing on broken-in leather booths, there is harsh lighting and uncomfortable seating. Clementine tells him about this, and he decides to compromise: He swaps the metal seating for pleather seating, and he keeps the technically-advanced dry-ice-noodles recipe while also adding the basic but homey lemon pie recipe.
(In a previous conversation, Clementine admits that her “perfect meal” is just a simple PB&J sandwich, due to the nostalgic memories she has with it. So she would choose that for her last meal, even though it’s not the most “delicious” food out there.)
Iwan and Clementine finally decide to try going out for real.