Do you know the key to happiness?

 

Detroit newspaperman Brady Ritz thinks he does: the key is to marry someone better than yourself. Brady does just that by marrying beautiful, straight-talking Natalie, and adopting her two young daughters.

 

Thirty years later, the still-happy Ritzes retire to become snowbirds. Where better to spend the winter months than in a Naples, Florida golf community?

 

But happiness has rules, and Brady starts breaking them. He soon loses interest in golf and country club small talk, in karaoke and Trivia Night. To amuse himself, he writes a secret humor column for Grumble, a little magazine. It's fun to joke about his now-grown stepdaughters' "religious commitment to vegetables," and "hovercraft approach" to raising his grandchildren. He takes aim at his Florida neighbors for buying junk jewelry and kitsch works of art on cruises. He also has choice words for those who get hair transplants and tummy tucks.

 

Natalie has always played by the rules of social life. She would never approve of her husband's Grumble column, and Brady conceals it from her. He writes under an assumed name, and carefully conceals everyone's identity. When Grumble goes out of business, the editor persuades Ritz to publish a collection of his best columns. Why not do it? His neighbors don't read anything but Lee Child thrillers, and bodice-ripper romances.

 

Except Brady forgets that gossip and small talk are what fuel retirement communities. When word gets out that someone they know wrote a book, people start reading, and finding themselves.