BLUE GARDENIA is a moving family saga told through the alternating perspectives of three generations of Pittsburgh women. Their story presents a Rust Belt company town through the lens of womanhood throughout the 20th century-inspiring reflections on creativity, mental health, motherhood, and grief.

Deenie narrates from beyond the grave and tells her story through her own words in a diary. In 1960, Deenie's lush garden and erratic behavior made the neighbors talk. Most days, Mia's only glimpse of her mother was from the bedroom window where she watched Deenie wander the woods and plant seeds by the light of the moon. After Deenie disappeared in the morning, Mia woke to cut flowers on her bedside table-payment for nurturing owed.

In the present, Mia reveals family secrets to her dead husband but conceals them from her sister and daughter. She knows the truth about Deenie, her early death, and her magnetic friend Lillian whose lipstick matched Deenie's red dahlias. Mia protects her mother's legacy in the garden but fears it in their bloodline.

Mia's daughter, Jess, cooks her way through a troubled marriage. Unlike Mia, her experience of motherhood is shaped by ambivalence. When she turns to her grandmother's diary for validation, the words reveal how little Jess knows about the women who came before her.

When Deenie's daughters and granddaughter come together in her garden, they unearth more than they expect. The revelations of Deenie's discarded diary and the soil of their rust belt town lead them to question if the thread that weaves throughout all of their lives is the curse in their blood or the redeeming power of creativity in all its forms. In Deenie's garden, the beauty she created out of darkness inspires each woman's journey of self-discovery.