Four Girls of Forty Years Ago

Four sisters, ranging from seven to twelve years old, share the dusty top floor of their grandmother's Manhattan mansion, left there by a father who sailed to China and a step-grandmother who has no love to give them. Dulcie, Daisy, Molly, and Maud have already lost their mother. Now they navigate corridors of neglect, memorize the sound of their step-grandmother's critical voice, and dream of the father who promised to return. When news arrives that he's coming home with a new wife, the girls descend into quiet terror: every book they've read warns them what stepmothers do. Yet between the hardship and the fear, there are small rebellions: a secret door that opens to a musical neighbor, a boy cousin who brings chaos and laughter, and the unbreakable联盟 of four girls who refuse to be broken. This is a story about finding light in confinement, and about what it means to wait for a love that may never arrive.