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Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors
by Margaretha FolmerThe Judean community at Elephantine has long fascinated historians of the Persian period. This book, with its stellar assemblage of important scholarly voices, provides substantive new insights and approaches that will advance the study of this well-known but not entirely understood community from fifth-century BCE Egypt. Since Bezalel Porten’s pioneering Archives from Elephantine, published in 1968, the discourse on the subject of the community of Elephantine during the Persian period has changed considerably, due to new data from excavations, the discovery and publication of previously unknown texts, and original scholarly insights and avenues of inquiry. Running the gamut from archaeological to linguistic investigations and encompassing legal, literary, religious, and other aspects of life in this Judean community, this volume stands at a crossroads of research that extends from Hebrew Bible studies to the history of early Jewish communities. It also features fourteen new Aramaic ostraca from Aswan. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, as well as to a wider audience of Egyptologists, Semitists, and specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Annalisa Azzoni, Bob Becking, Alejandro F. Botta, Lester L. Grabbe, Ingo Kottsieper, Reinhard G. Kratz, André Lemaire, Hélène Nutkowicz, Beatrice von Pilgrim, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, and Ran Zadok. Moreover, a video recording of an interview conducted with Porten on his long career in Elephantine studies accompanies the book through a link on the Eisenbrauns website.
Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors
by Margaretha FolmerThe Judean community at Elephantine has long fascinated historians of the Persian period. This book, with its stellar assemblage of important scholarly voices, provides substantive new insights and approaches that will advance the study of this well-known but not entirely understood community from fifth-century BCE Egypt. Since Bezalel Porten’s pioneering Archives from Elephantine, published in 1968, the discourse on the subject of the community of Elephantine during the Persian period has changed considerably, due to new data from excavations, the discovery and publication of previously unknown texts, and original scholarly insights and avenues of inquiry. Running the gamut from archaeological to linguistic investigations and encompassing legal, literary, religious, and other aspects of life in this Judean community, this volume stands at a crossroads of research that extends from Hebrew Bible studies to the history of early Jewish communities. It also features fourteen new Aramaic ostraca from Aswan. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, as well as to a wider audience of Egyptologists, Semitists, and specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Annalisa Azzoni, Bob Becking, Alejandro F. Botta, Lester L. Grabbe, Ingo Kottsieper, Reinhard G. Kratz, André Lemaire, Hélène Nutkowicz, Beatrice von Pilgrim, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, and Ran Zadok. Moreover, a video recording of an interview conducted with Porten on his long career in Elephantine studies accompanies the book through a link on the Eisenbrauns website.
Elephants and Kings: An Environmental History
by Thomas R. TrautmannBecause of their enormous size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In early civilizations--such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, and China--kings used elephants for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, or the conspicuous consumption of ivory--all of them tending toward the elephant's extinction. The kings of India, however, as Thomas R. Trautmann shows in this study, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: war. Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the west--where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity--and Southeast Asia (but not China, significantly), a history that spans 3,000 years and a considerable part of the globe, from Spain to Java. He shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations, Trautmann throws into relief the structure of India's environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests.
Elephants Can Remember: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries #37)
by Agatha Christie"The Ravenscrofts didn't seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid..." And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself-or perhaps it was the other way around, since sets of both of their fingerprints were on the gun, and the gun had fallen between them. The case haunts Ariadne Oliver, who had been a friend of the couple. The famous mystery novelist desires this real-life mystery solved, and calls upon Hercule Poirot to help her do so. Poirot is now a very old man, but his mind is as nimble and as sharp as ever and can still penetrate deep into the shadows. But as Poirot and Mrs. Oliver and Superintendent Spence reopen the long-closed case, a startling discovery awaits them. And if memory serves Poirot (and it does!), crime-like history-has a tendency to repeat itself.
The Elephant's Journey: A Novel
by José Saramago&“The Portuguese Nobel Prize winner&’s delightful posthumous novel recounts the [16th century] travels of an Indian elephant…from Lisbon to Vienna&” (The New Yorker).In 1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon. In The Elephant&’s Journey, José Saramago imagines Solomon&’s epic journey by foot across Europe with his Hindu keeper Subhro along for the adventure.Accompanied by the Archduke, his new wife, and the royal guard, these unlikely heroes traverse a continent riven by the Reformation and civil wars. They are witnessed by scholars, historians, and wide-eyed ordinary people as they make their way through the storied cities of northern Italy, brave the Alps, cross the Mediterranean Sea, and at last, make their way toward their grand entry into the imperial city.&“A tale rich in irony and empathy, regularly interrupted by witty reflections on human nature and arch commentary on the powerful who insult human dignity.&”—Los Angeles Times
Elephants & Kings: An Environmental History
by Thomas R. TrautmannBecause of their enormous size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In early civilizations—such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, and China—kings used elephants for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, or the conspicuous consumption of ivory—all of them tending toward the elephant’s extinction. The kings of India, however, as Thomas R. Trautmann shows in this study, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: war. Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the west—where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity—and Southeast Asia (but not China, significantly), a history that spans 3,000 years and a considerable part of the globe, from Spain to Java. He shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations, Trautmann throws into relief the structure of India’s environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests.
Elevate the Masses: Alexander Gardner, Photography, and Democracy in Nineteenth-Century America
by Makeda BestAlexander Gardner is best known for his innovative photographic history of the Civil War. What is less known is the extent to which he was involved in the international workers’ rights movement. Tying Gardner’s photographic storytelling to his transatlantic reform activities, this book expands our understanding of Gardner’s career and the work of his studio in Washington, DC, by situating his photographic production within the era’s discourse on social and political reform.Drawing on previously unknown primary sources and original close readings, Makeda Best reveals how Gardner’s activism in Scotland and photography in the United States shared an ideological foundation. She reads his Photographic Sketch Book of the War as a politically motivated project, rooted in Gardner’s Chartist and Owenite beliefs, and illuminates how its treatment of slavery is primarily concerned with the harm that the institution posed to the United States’ reputation as a model democracy. Best shows how, in his portraiture, Gardner celebrated Northern labor communities and elevated white immigrant workers, despite the industrialization that degraded them. She concludes with a discussion of Gardner’s promotion of an American national infrastructure in which photographers and photography played an integral role.Original and compelling, this reconsideration of Gardner’s work expands the contribution of Civil War photography beyond the immediate narrative of the war to comprehend its relation to the vigorous international debates about democracy, industrialization, and the rights of citizens. Scholars working at the intersection of photography, cultural history, and social reform in the nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic will find Best’s work invaluable to their own research.
Elevate the Masses: Alexander Gardner, Photography, and Democracy in Nineteenth-Century America
by Makeda BestAlexander Gardner is best known for his innovative photographic history of the Civil War. What is less known is the extent to which he was involved in the international workers’ rights movement. Tying Gardner’s photographic storytelling to his transatlantic reform activities, this book expands our understanding of Gardner’s career and the work of his studio in Washington, DC, by situating his photographic production within the era’s discourse on social and political reform.Drawing on previously unknown primary sources and original close readings, Makeda Best reveals how Gardner’s activism in Scotland and photography in the United States shared an ideological foundation. She reads his Photographic Sketch Book of the War as a politically motivated project, rooted in Gardner’s Chartist and Owenite beliefs, and illuminates how its treatment of slavery is primarily concerned with the harm that the institution posed to the United States’ reputation as a model democracy. Best shows how, in his portraiture, Gardner celebrated Northern labor communities and elevated white immigrant workers, despite the industrialization that degraded them. She concludes with a discussion of Gardner’s promotion of an American national infrastructure in which photographers and photography played an integral role.Original and compelling, this reconsideration of Gardner’s work expands the contribution of Civil War photography beyond the immediate narrative of the war to comprehend its relation to the vigorous international debates about democracy, industrialization, and the rights of citizens. Scholars working at the intersection of photography, cultural history, and social reform in the nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic will find Best’s work invaluable to their own research.
Elevating the Game: The History and Aesthetics of Black Men in Basketball
by Nelson GeorgeThe author of "The Michael Jackson Story" argues that black basketball players have reinvented the game. By researching the history of basketball George exposes African American icons who have revolutionized dribbling. He tells the stories of those black individuals who advanced the sport's technique, and who influenced its strategy. The author skillfully narrates the African American history that is integral to the history of basketball.
The Elevator
by William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1871, but his literary reputation really took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which describes the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur in the paint business. His social views were also strongly reflected in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890). While known primarily as a novelist, his short story "Editha" (1905) - included in the collection Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907) - appears in many anthologies of American literature. Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Ibsen, Zola, Verga, and, especially, Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of many American writers. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence.
The Eleven
by Elizabeth Deshays Jody Gladding Pierre MichonIn The Eleven, Michon lets us into the world of Corentin, a painter shaoed by--and who eventually shapes--history. Brought up among provincial aristocracy to become a favorite of Parisian society--his paintings are commissioned by Louis XV's mistress--Corentin's career rides the Tides of the French Revolution. His masterpiece, "The Eleven," is an enigmatic Last Supper, representing the eleven members of the Committee of Public Safety (including Robespierre and Saint Just) during the Reign of Terror. Corentin and company, his work of art, and the historical tableau of the French Revolution come to life in dazzling, even painterly, detail. A potent blend of fact and fiction, The Eleven is a beautifully written, astute meditation on the nature of history itself and the artist's role in it.
Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944
by Matthew Cobb'I had thought that for me there could never again be any elation in war. But I had reckoned without the liberation of Paris - I had reckoned without remembering that I might be a part of that richly historic day. We were in Paris on the first day - one of the great days of all time.' (Ernie Pyle, US war correspondent)The liberation of Paris was a momentous point in twentieth-century history, yet it is now largely forgotten outside France. Eleven Days in August is a pulsating hour-by-hour reconstruction of these tumultuous events that shaped the final phase of the war and the future of France, told with the pace of a thriller. While examining the conflicting national and international interests that played out in the bloody street fighting, it tells of how, in eleven dramatic days, people lived, fought and died in the most beautiful city in the world. Based largely on unpublished archive material, including secret conversations, coded messages, diaries and eyewitness accounts, Eleven Days in August shows how these August days were experienced in very different ways by ordinary Parisians, Resistance fighters, French collaborators, rank-and-file German soldiers, Allied and French spies, the Allied and German High Commands.Above all, it shows that while the liberation of Paris may be attributed to the audacity of the Resistance, the weakness of the Germans and the strength of the Allies, the key to it all was the Parisians who by turn built street barricades and sunbathed on the banks of the Seine, who fought the Germans and simply tried to survive until the Germans finally surrendered, in a billiard room at the Prefecture of Police. One of the most iconic moments in the history of the twentieth century had come to a close, and the face of Paris would never be the same again.
Eleven Exiles: Accounts of Loyalists of the American Revolution
by Phyllis R. Blakeley John GrantEleven Exiles is a personal account of the American Revolution. By focusing on eleven different people who were on the losing side of the American Revolution, and who had to make new lives for themselves in what remained of British North America. Eleven Exiles reflects the major themes of those turbulent years. What were the attitudes of these men and women toward the significant social and political ideas of the time? What motivated them to leave their home and move to a wildnerness? What challenges and hardships did they face?
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart: Number 3 in series (Love by Numbers #3)
by Sarah MacLean'Fabulous' Eloisa James'Smart, sexy, and always romantic' Julia Quinn'For a smart, witty and passionate historical romance, I recommend anything by Sarah MacLean' Lisa KleypasShe lives for passion. Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society's rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favorite subject of London's most practiced gossips . . . and precisely the kind of woman the Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him. He swears by reputation. Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage late one evening - risking everything he holds dear - he swears to teach the reckless beauty a lesson in propriety. She has other plans, however; she wants two weeks to prove that even an unflappable duke is not above passion.This is the third novel in the Regency romance Love By Numbers trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean - perfect for fans of Lisa Kleypas and Eloisa JamesLove By Numbers series:Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a RakeTen Ways to Be Adored When Landing a LordEleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's HeartPraise for Sarah MacLean:'Sarah MacLean has reignited the romance genre with a bolder edge' The New Yorker'Funny, smart, feminist and roastingly hot' BookRiot.com'Do yourself a favor and discover the compelling magic of Sarah MacLean' Amanda Quick'MacLean writes with an entirely unique blend of elegance and ferocity that bursts from every page' Entertainment Weekly'Great chemistry, intelligence and sparkling humor' RT Book Reviews
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (Love By Numbers #3)
by Sarah MacLeanShe lives for passion.Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society's rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favorite subject of London's most practiced gossips . . . and precisely the kind of woman The Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him.He swears by reputation.Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage late one evening--risking everything he holds dear--he swears to teach the reckless beauty a lesson in propriety. She has other plans, however; she wants two weeks to prove that even an unflappable duke is not above passion.
Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan
by Sherzod MuminovThe odyssey of 600,000 imperial Japanese soldiers incarcerated in Soviet labor camps after World War II and their fraught repatriation to postwar Japan. In August 1945 the Soviet Union seized the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and the colony of Southern Sakhalin, capturing more than 600,000 Japanese soldiers, who were transported to labor camps across the Soviet Union but primarily concentrated in Siberia and the Far East. Imprisonment came as a surprise to the soldiers, who thought they were being shipped home. The Japanese prisoners became a workforce for the rebuilding Soviets, as well as pawns in the Cold War. Alongside other Axis POWs, they did backbreaking jobs, from mining and logging to agriculture and construction. They were routinely subjected to “reeducation” glorifying the Soviet system and urging them to support the newly legalized Japanese Communist Party and to resist American influence in Japan upon repatriation. About 60,000 Japanese didn’t survive Siberia. The rest were sent home in waves, the last lingering in the camps until 1956. Already laid low by war and years of hard labor, returnees faced the final shock and alienation of an unrecognizable homeland, transformed after the demise of the imperial state. Sherzod Muminov draws on extensive Japanese, Russian, and English archives—including memoirs and survivor interviews—to piece together a portrait of life in Siberia and in Japan afterward. Eleven Winters of Discontent reveals the real people underneath facile tropes of the prisoner of war and expands our understanding of the Cold War front. Superpower confrontation played out in the Siberian camps as surely as it did in Berlin or the Bay of Pigs.
Eleven Years in Central South Africa
by Thomas Morgan ThomasAn important surviving source for the study of the spectacular and short-lived kingdom of Ndebele. In the literature of pre-conquest Rhodesia, Thomas' book stands out by virtue of its ethnographical and political material about the Ndebele under Mzilikazi and Lebengula.
Eleven Years In Soviet Prison Camps
by Elinor LipperThe shocking and absorbing account of life in the hell of the Soviet Gulag system is told in all his horrific details here by Elinor Lipper."IN THIS BOOK I have described my personal experiences only to the extent that they were the characteristic experiences of a prisoner in the Soviet Union. For my concern is not primarily with the foreigners in Soviet camps; it is rather with the fate of all the peoples who have been subjugated by the Soviet regime, who were born in a Soviet Republic and cannot escape from it.The events I describe are the daily experiences of thousands or people in the Soviet Union. They are the findings of an involuntary expedition into an unknown land: the land of Soviet prisoners, of the guiltless damned. From that region I have brought back with me the silence of the Siberian graveyards, the deathly silence of those who have frozen, starved, or been beaten to death. This book is an attempt to make that silence speak."-from the Author's Preface.
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden
by Anthony Summers Robbyn SwanFINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZEWriting with access to thousands of recently released official documents, fresh interviews, and the perspective that can come only from a decade of research and reflection, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan deliver the first panoramic, authoritative look back at 9/11.For most living Americans, September 11, 2001, is the darkest date in the nation's history. What exactly happened? Could it have been prevented? How and why did so much acrimony and bad information arise from the ashes of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a quiet field in Pennsylvania? And what remains unresolved? What is certain: Discord and dissent continue to this day.Beginning with the first brutal actions of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, The Eleventh Day tracks the precise sequence of events and introduces the players: pilots, terrorists, the airliners' passengers, and the innocents who died on the ground. Drawing on previously classified records and raw transcripts, Summers and Swan investigate the response of President Bush and the U.S. military that day, and the failure to intercept the hijacked airliners. They document the untruths told afterward by U.S. officials and, as a counterpoint, thoroughly consider the contentions of the "9/11 truth" movement. With meticulous research, they examine the personalities of the men behind the onslaught, analyze the motives that drove them, and expose the U.S. intelligence blunders that preceded the attacks. They note how afterward--without good evidence--the Bush administration persisted in trying to link 9/11 to Iraq. And they confront, finally, the question the 9/11 Commission's report blurred: Were the terrorists backed by powerful figures in another foreign nation--one the U.S. had long viewed as a friend?Riveting, revelatory, and unforgettable, thoroughly sourced and complete with extensive endnotes, The Eleventh Day is the essential one-volume work on a pivotal event in our history.
The Eleventh Hour
by Nick BrownSyria, 262 AD. Imperial agent Abascantius has failed his superiors and now faces the unwelcome prospect of a return to the legions. With only hours to work with, he will need resourcefulness and ruthlessness in equal measure if he is to salvage the situation and save himself. From Agent of Rome author Nick Brown, this compelling short story is set in the violent, corrupt underbelly of third century Antioch.
The Eleventh Hour
by Nick BrownSyria, 262 AD. Imperial agent Abascantius has failed his superiors and now faces the unwelcome prospect of a return to the legions. With only hours to work with, he will need resourcefulness and ruthlessness in equal measure if he is to salvage the situation and save himself. From Agent of Rome author Nick Brown, this compelling short story is set in the violent, corrupt underbelly of third century Antioch.
The Eleventh Hour (Secret of the Rose #1)
by Michael PhillipsFamily and faith guide one man through the buildup to World War II in this unforgettable saga—first in the Secret of the Rose series. In 1930s pre-war Prussia, Baron von Dortmann lives an idyllic life with his daughter Sabina. A devoted gardener and father, the Baron teaches his daughter powerful lessons about life, creation, and God&’s love during treasured walks in the estate&’s beautiful gardens. But Sabina is growing up, and the Baron&’s beloved Prussia is changing. Now a beautiful young woman, Sabina has caught the eye of a handsome young American, Matthew. Meanwhile, a cloud is gathering on the horizon as the Nazis seize power in neighboring Germany. As he strives to protect his family and follow his own moral compass, Baron von Dortmann will face heart-wrenching decisions, with only God&’s guidance to light the way.&“Watching Sabina and her parents in the Secret of the Rose series as they dealt with Nazi antagonism caused me to ponder exactly what it would have been like to live amongst such challenges. Sabina&’s zest for life and faith in God are encouragement to live in a way that honors the Lord, no matter what life-threatening challenges may arise.&” —Kindred Grace
Eleventh Hour: A Tudor mystery featuring Christopher Marlowe (The Kit Marlowe Mysteries #8)
by M. J. TrowChristopher Marlowe must discover who murdered the queen’s spymaster in this absorbing historical mystery. April, 1590. The queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead, leaving a dangerous power vacuum. His former right hand man, Nicholas Faunt, believes he was poisoned and has ordered Kit Marlowe to discover who killed him. To find the answers, Marlowe must consult the leading scientists and thinkers in the country. But as he questions the members of the so-called School of Night, the playwright-turned-spy becomes convinced that at least one of them is hiding a deadly secret. If he is to outwit the most enquiring minds in Europe and unmask the killer within, Marlowe must devise an impossibly ingenious plan. “Fans will welcome this bawdy, witty eighth adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews “A crackling plot, strong characters, and plenty of twists.” —Booklist
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: The War to End All Wars and Its Violent End
by Joseph E. PersicoThe story of the day on which World War I, the war to end all wars, ended. Using military archives and public records, along with journals and diaries, the book will weave together the eleventh hour experiences of the famous, such as Lloyd George, President Woodrow Wilson, Field Marshall Haig and General Pershing. But more dominantly, it will deal with the ordinary men in the trenches, unsung and unremembered, the British Tommies, French Poilus, American Doughboys and German Feldgrau. Where, for example, was the Austrian corporal, Adolf Hitler, on that day? Four days before the War's end, with peace talks already underway, the beaten Germans propose an interim ceasefire to spare lives. However, the French Allied Commander, General Ferdinand Foch, refuses. Hostilities will not cease, Foch insists, before the appointed hour of the Armistice. Thus, even on the last day, the Allies are still launching full scale offenses and both sides bombard each other until the final minute of the agreed ceasefire, 11am, November 11, 1918. The last hours pulsate with tension as men in the trenches, airmen in the sky and sailors at sea hope to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in the War.
The Eleventh Year
by Monique Raphel HighTwo best friends. An artist and a writer. One rich. One poor. A lifetime of deception and betrayal. Upon graduating from Vassar, socialite Lesley Aymes Richardson and brilliant Jamie Lynne Stewart set out to achieve their dreams and begin their lives in hedonistic post World War I Paris in pursuit of art and pleasure . Both women have incurable urges to live and love, whatever the cost. But after a series of poor decisions and broken hearts, they discover a life far from the perfection they originally envisioned. Although Lesley finds a life of considerable renown, she harbors secrets that she keeps buried to maintain a certain level of decorum and respect. When a mysterious Russian princess threatens to expose a secret from her past, together she and Jamie must confront the truth, despite the consequences that may be unleashed. On the eve of her eleventh year of marriage, Lesley is forced to look back, to make a decision that will alter all of their lives forever.