At the start of the story, Livia Drusilla is a woman of advanced years who recounts the events of her life. She reminisces about a time when she was a fourteen-year-old girl living under her father’s roof, before she was married. She was the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, a respectable Roman nobleman who consequently plotted to murder Julius Caesar.
The Nightingale
It is present day Oregon and an elderly widow lives alone. While we are not told her name, we find that she has just recently sold her house and that she is going to be placed in an adult care facility at the behest of her son, Julien. Just months ago, her own husband died and she discusses at length just how weak she feels herself to be. Her eyesight is growing weaker and she is not as strong as she once was. One day while in her attic she discovers something that reminds her of the past, of a life that once was and how it was a very different world. Discovering the name of Juliette Gervaise, our heroine slips back into the past, back into the world that once was…
The Midwife’s Revolt
Lizzie Boylston, our heroine stands on the threshold of her home as she watches her husband, Jeb, depart for war. There is a sense of foreboding that seems to plague her about her husband leaving, especially during a difficult time. She wants to stop him from going but knows that she is powerless to do so. Before the battle takes place, Lizzie officially meets her husband’s relative, Abigail Adams as well as her children, a balm on a most painful wound. Abigail is a very down-to-earth, sensible woman who appears to be the rock for everyone in the community, Lizzie especially.
The Miniaturist
The year is 1686 and Petronella Oortman has arrived in Amsterdam, the glittering utopia city with pomp and splendor. The protagonist called “Nella” has come to move in to her husband, Johannes Brandt’s home. She is a quiet country girl from a very old Dutch family with a good name, hailing originally from the smaller town, Assendelft.