Brought togeth­er by chance, bound togeth­er by secrets.

A decade into the Depres­sion, Mil­li­cent Green is a twen­ty-five-year-old ​“old maid” liv­ing with her mar­riage-obsessed moth­er and dom­i­neer­ing old­er broth­er in the sti­fling­ly small Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty of New Bern, North Car­oli­na. Smart and prick­ly, she’s strug­gling to find her place in the world fol­low­ing the loss of her beloved younger broth­er, and with him, her dreams for the future.

One humid August day, Mil­lie is sent to run an errand and dis­cov­ers a young woman uncon­scious on the ground. This mys­tery woman, mute and with­out iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, will upend Millie’s life. Togeth­er, they set out on a quest that will lay bare some of the twen­ti­eth century’s most shame­ful episodes.

From a his­toric riv­er town to the hin­ter­lands of rur­al North Car­oli­na, The Lost Girl of Craven Coun­ty delves into the impos­si­bil­i­ty of bury­ing secrets for­ev­er. It’s a sto­ry of love, loss, and — above all — the indeli­ble, world-mov­ing pow­er of female friendship.