Europe is at war. Nazi bombers are hammering London. Wendell Willkie is giving Roosevelt a run for his money. In Kansas City, Dorie and her partner, Amos, are trying to keep the blond and beautiful Thalia Hines from destroying herself. It's not easy. The girl has every reason to escape the cold stone mansion where her mother lies dying. Eveline Hines was a decorated war hero during the First World War. Now she's struggling to protect her only daughter from men who lust over her inheritance even more than her curves. An old friend of Amos's, Eveline is slipping away from cancer while her daughter carouses in the swank nightclubs and back-alley bars of the city.

In the rich milieu of a bygone time, themes as far-reaching as American fascists, a third-term president, and an America preparing for war provide color for the intimate portrait of a powerful woman bearing witness to the destruction of all she loves. For the Hines family, nothing will ever be the same in this powerful story of maternal love and family secrets, and the disastrous attempts to mingle them.