The spring and summer of 1916 is fraught with family secrets, friendship troubles, and growing pains for sixteen-year-old Ethelwynne Graves. Reeling between conflicts with her mother and her best friend's relationship with an older man, Ethelwynne attempts to learn how to be true to herself while balancing fluctuating relationships and life.

Hattie Spunner yearns to support her young friend and widen her sphere of influence amid the high society crowd she married into three years previous. A progressive science club is her vehicle, but will the conversations be too bold for the conservative city of Mobile, Alabama?

First loves, scandals, and a natural disaster are a sampling of what readers will find in the second tumultuous novel in The Malevolent Trilogy.