Her Mother's Lover

Three women are searching for their futures—in contemporary Philadelphia, Stella Simone is facing the absence of her daughter and husband, while history Professor Eve Newcastle faces an uncertain future as retirement looms. In 1928 Paris, Madalane Durand is a young student who has successfully fought her family for the right to attend university there on her own. These three women find their past and future connections to each other in letters written by an enigmatic artist named Evienne Lavelle. Madalane's journey begins when Paris was the center of the cultural world; Picasso changed the World’s Fair with Guernica, and Gertrude Stein was the literary and artistic king maker. As the 1930s come to a close and the specter of war overshadows the world, Madalane and the rest of Paris desperately try to hold on to their lives as their city is targeted by the Nazis. Cleaning out a dead woman’s house, Stella discovers a cache of letters. With the help of Madalane's daughter, Eve, they try to understand what happened to Madalane in Paris. Their search reveals a life inside of a lie and, as painful memories and deceptions surface, both women are changed as they learn the truth about Madalane's life.