Louisa Delafield, the child of an upper class family in New York, must become the breadwinner after a scandal results in the loss of both her father’s life and the family fortune. In order to survive, she writes a popular society column for a respected newspaper, but when a new editor threatens her livelihood, she searches for more significant assignments. She winds up enraging the very society members she once admired. Louisa is assisted by Ellen Malloy, a lady’s maid in the household of a wealthy family, whose life is endangered when she witnesses what happens to a poor girl seduced by the powerful master of the house.
These two women combine forces to overcome their lack of equality and power in a well-plotted journey. Issues of women’s suffrage, contraception, and living in a closeted world, issues still relevant more than 100 years later, are central to the story. The Whispering Women is the first of a six-part series.
