Synopsis

When their older sister Amy Hewitt gets engaged, society ladies Sally and Nellie Hewitt decide to reject the traditional path of marriage and leisure laid out for them and endeavor to found one of New York's first museums, the modern day Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.

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Along the way their paths intersect with Etta Blackwell, an aspiring young black artist taking classes at the Cooper Union, and Li Xiu, a Chinese immigrant seamstress who suffers a terrible loss. Things are complicated by Prudence Williams, a female journalist with a penchant for meddling into the lives of the privileged, and Bridget, a ladies maid who is not who she appears to be.

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