In 1940, Vivian Morris is kicked out of Vassar College due to poor freshman-year grades, so her wealthy parents send her to live with Aunt Peg in Manhattan--the same Aunt Peg who owns the flamboyant but crumbling theater called Lily Playhouse. In the Playhouse Vivian meets a cast of charismatic and unconventional characters, including fun-loving showgirls and playboy actors, a lady-killer writer, and a no-nonsense stage manager. Decades later, now eighty-nine, Vivian recalls the events of the years that followed her discoveries of life and love in Manhattan.