In 1901 Buffalo, New York, Louisa Barrett, the progressive headmistress of the exclusive Macaulay School for Girls, stumbles upon a secret involving the powerful members of her school board that could destroy everything for which she has worked as well as her relationship with her goddaughter and the child's widowed father.

"From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning...