Chapter 1 Summary

The novel opens with Olympia Crawford Rubinstein working in the kitchen of her family's brownstone on Jane Street. The area was once in the old meat packing section but was now a fashionable area. There were high rise apartment building with doormen now. Her son Max would be home any minute. It was a Friday and he only had half a day of school. She always tried to spend Friday afternoons with the kindergartener. Max is only one of Olympia's children but he is the only child from her marriage to Harry. Her other three children are older and from a previous marriage. Olympia has been married to Harry for thirteen years now and had waited eight years to have Max.

Olympia practices law in the area of civil rights and class-action lawsuits. Her favorite cases involved discrimination and child abuse. Harry was...