Patti Jo Lewis wakes up from ostomy surgery and thinks her life is over. Then she meets Lorraine, a dynamic woman who is thriving after having the same surgery, and who just might be living proof that Patti's life may be just beginning.

Soon the new friends are embroiled in the mystery surrounding the death of Lorraine's ex-husband and his possible connection to a growing scandal involving the high school football team he coached. Patti works to help Lorraine uncover the truth, and in the process she is reunited with her old boyfriend Robb, now a young cop investigating the death.

Helping her friend solve the mystery isn't the only challenge facing Patti. She needs to decide how far she can trust Robb while he is working on the case, perhaps against the interests of her new friend. Patti also tries to close rifts in her own family. There is her father and brother, estranged ever since her brother announced he was gay. There is all of them and her mother, who abandoned them for another man many years before, and who arrives on the scene to complicate an already complex situation. If this weren't enough, another family secret explodes into her life and threatens to tear apart all she has pulled together.

With wit and humor, Caught Holding the Bag tells the moving story of a woman who rises above life-altering surgery and unexpectedly seizes control of her life for the first time.