A sweeping saga of four generations of women, played out against a passionate portrait of America in the twentieth century, from "free love" in Greenwich Village to the Summer of Love in San Francisco, from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York to the fires of the London Blitz. Here is the engrossing story of Leah Vogel Lazarus, the matriarch of a family of women whose lives and loves become the rich tapestry of Marcia Rose's most dazzling novel . . . . Leah -- Her gift for words propelled her from New York's Lower East Side into the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in the 1920s, a world ripe with intellectual and artistic ideas, wine, laughter, and love. Her passion and sensuality were fired by the love of two men . . . and by her crusades against injustice and poverty. Jo -- World War II England was ripe for exposure, and Jo's stark photographs of the Blitz propelled her to fame. But behind the camera, her fairy tale marriage to an RAF officer was a hideous masquerade. Why had she run away from herself . . . and everything that she was? Sarah -- A singer, she lived for the hushed and attentive listeners, the spotlight, and the music that calmed the discontent pervading her life. She embraced the sixties in all their kaleidoscopic glory only to discover that freedom was a prison -- and the baby girl who looked at her with her father's eyes only reminded her of all she had lost. Annie -- Growing up in the shadow of one of the world's most beautiful, enigmatic women, Annie found salvation as a comedian, sure that her humor would make the whole world laugh and love her. Bright, funny, lovely, she forged a special relationship with her great-grandmother -- one that sustained them both through turbulent times . . . . Four women, unique yet alike, strong yet vulnerable. Courage, passion, and exuberance would mark each one as her mother's daughter.