guided by the manager's unbreakable rules. But after the turmoil of war in Europe, the world is changing, and the women in the shop have plans.

The brilliant and stylish Vivien Lowry, still grieving her fiancé who was killed in action, has a long list of grievances, the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the head of fiction.

Loyal Grace Perkins is torn between duty and dreams of her own while struggling to support her family following her husband's breakdown.

Fiercely bright Evie Stone was one of the first female Cambridge students to earn a degree but was denied an academic position in favour of a less accomplished male rival. Now she plans to remake her own future.

As these Bloomsbury girls interact with literary figures of the time among them Daphne du Maurier, Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien, Grace and Evie plot out a richer and more rewarding future.