The beloved author of Not Our Kind and The Dress­mak­ers of Prospect Heights returns with a sto­ry of secrets, friend­ship, and betray­al about two young women at Vas­sar in the years after World War II, a pow­er­ful and mov­ing tale of prej­u­dice and pride that echoes the cul­tur­al and social issues of today.

Anne Bish­op seems like a typ­i­cal Vas­sar fresh­man — one of a pop­u­lar group of priv­i­leged WASP friends. None of the girls in her cir­cle has any idea that she’s Jew­ish, or that her real first name is Miri­am. Pre­tend­ing to be a Gen­tile has made life eas­i­er — as Anne, she no longer suf­fers the snubs, snide remarks, and dai­ly restric­tions Jews face. She enjoys her col­lege life of teas, late-night con­ver­sa­tions, and mix­ers. She turns a blind eye to the casu­al anti­semitism that flour­ish­es among her friends and class­mates — after all, it’s no longer direct­ed at her.

But her secret life is threat­ened when she becomes fas­ci­nat­ed by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Gold­hush is sophis­ti­cat­ed, styl­ish, bril­liant, and unashamed­ly Jew­ish — and seems not to care that she’s an out­cast among the oth­er stu­dents. Know­ing that her grow­ing close­ness with Delia would be social sui­cide if it were dis­cov­ered, Anne keeps their friend­ship qui­et. Delia seems to under­stand — until a cru­el­ty on Anne’s part dri­ves them apart and sends them scat­ter­ing to oth­er cor­ners of the world, alone and together.