Book excerpt: 1955 -- In an apartment on the Lower East Side, school teachers Dovie and Gillian live as lodgers. Dancing behind closed curtains, mixing cocktails for two, they guard their private lives fiercely. Until someone guesses the truth... 1975 -- Ava Winters is keeping her own secret. Her mother has become erratic, haunted by something Ava doesn't understand -- until, one sweltering July morning, she disappears. After her mother's departure, Ava receives a parcel. If she can discover where it came from, she may find her answers -- and meet the woman at the heart of it all...