Narrated by the sparky Dawn,a newspaper reporter in 1910s America, the novel opens with her ill in hospital. Her husband - the once charming Peter Orme - is in an insane asylum, and she has been struggling to pay for his keep.
Dawn goes to recuperate with her married sister and observes that 'being an old maid was a great deal like death by drowning a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling.' But she also meets the wonderful Dr von Gerhard, a nerve specialist sent to treat her...
But Dawn is a battler and soon resumes her career in Milwaukee, where her life is full of incident, some comic, some heartwarming and some tragic...
This book really took off for me as I got into it, and I couldn't stop reading, wanting to know how it would all pan out for her ( )