Three women, three choices. Each battling a man trying to control her life. Then they discover the power of friendship. English professor and literary detective Dr. Lily Atwood knows a thing or two about uncovering long-buried truths, focusing on Edith Wharton. Then a student's journal writing assignment sets off an alarm. Cara is the victim of a dangerous relationship. Lily breaks the usual professor/student boundary to offer Cara a path to safety. When Lily loses her hard-won tenure-track job, it is Cara who shows her that Lily is also a victim: it is Lily's husband who has sabotaged her career. Constance, a reference librarian from old, rich New York, befriends Lily, suspecting that Lily's husband and Constance's former husband are two of a kind. It is Constance who shakes Lily into investigating her own marriage. Determined to avoid becoming a Wharton-esque tragic heroine, Lily sets out to discover her husband's past, something she previously avoided. After all, you trust the man you marry, right? That's the deal. And what she uncovers is several kinds of murder.