The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

When Jonell McLain saw the diamond necklace in the store window, it aroused first desire, then a provocative question: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful, yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? A dozen phone calls and a leap of faith later, Jonell bought the necklace with twelve other women, with the goal of sharing it.

With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, these women show us how they transcended their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey. What started as a quirky social experiment became something far richer and deeper, as the women transformed a symbol of exclusivity into a symbol of inclusiveness. Soon, sharing the necklace among themselves proved to be the beginning of a profound journey of possibility that would touch the lives of a community.