Tracee is a run­away bride and klep­to­ma­ni­ac. Lana’s an auda­cious beau­ty and a recov­er­ing alco­holic. Rita is a holy-roller min­is­ter’s wife, des­per­ate to escape her mar­riage and dis­cov­er whether she actu­al­ly has a mind of her own.

One warm sum­mer’s night, these three women go on the lam togeth­er. Their car breaks down on a rur­al high­way in North Car­oli­na and they’re forced to seek shel­ter in a seem­ing­ly aban­doned night­club. Which is where they meet Mar­cel. And soon every­thing changes.

Mar­cel, you see, is a lion, a retired cir­cus per­former stuck in a cage in this god­for­sak­en road­house. And through admi­ra­tion — one might even say love — for Mar­cel, our hero­ines find a way to con­front their com­pli­cat­ed pasts and fight for the strange, embrac­ing rela­tion­ships they’ve formed out in the mid­dle of nowhere. They ulti­mate­ly nav­i­gate their way back to their own hearts — and ours.

Writ­ten with the deft­ness, humor, and sparkling wit that have marked her books, plays, and movies, Delia Ephron’s The Lion Is In is an unfor­get­table sto­ry of friend­ship, courage, love — and learn­ing to sal­sa with the king of the jun­gle.