Harlem, 1938.
Nineteen-year-old Vivian Ashford steps off the train with a suitcase, a pair of worn dance shoes, and the certainty that her life is waiting for her in New York.
She writes to her older sister, Etta, about everything - the crowded streets, the music pouring out of Harlem's clubs, her first terrifying night onstage, and the trumpet player who makes her laugh when she should be concentrating. For the first time, Vivian isn't simply dreaming about the life she wants. She's living it.
Then the world begins to change.
As war approaches, pressure mounts around the Harlem club where Vivian works. Rumors and accusations threaten the musicians, dancers, and people who have built their lives there. At the same time, the opportunity Vivian has been waiting for finally arrives, a chance to leave Harlem and pursue the dancing career she always imagined.
Vivian has a choice. She can take the opportunity and walk away. Or she can stay. She chooses to stay. But she never tells Etta the real reason.
Through twenty-four letters spanning the years from 1938 through the end of the war, Vivian's story unfolds: the exhilaration of youth, the complicated reality of love, the changing world around her, and the cost of choosing something larger than herself.
Then, decades later, a forgotten trunk is discovered in a Harlem attic. Inside are Vivian's letters. Her old dance shoes. Photographs.
And the truth about the decision that changed her life.
