Gabriel Staub is a writer adrift in his early 30s whose older sister, Becca, is a brilliant, tempestuous-and world-famous- artist. Gabriel has spent his life in the shadow of Becca's success, and he is haunted by a childhood incident that traumatized her. A chance encounter with an old friend offers him unexpected companionship, but also forces him to confront his painful past.

Providence is a story about friendship, art, and memory set amid the contemporary New York of glamorous high-rises and glitzy art galleries, with detours to France, Italy, the Slovak Republic, and the backwoods of the Catskill Mountains. Meditative and searching, the novel tells of coming of age amid loss and solitude.