Somewhere Besides Denver

Denver, 1907: Seventeen-year-olds Violet and Marion prepare to leave the prairie for a yearlong Grand Tour to Europe with Lena, their chaperone. They talk of escaping Lena to visit nightclubs and try the scandalous drink absinthe.Eighteen-year-old Helen is invited on the trip. A rancher’s daughter whose mother abandoned her, Helen is on a lower social rung than Violet and Marion. She resents being a “country girl,” worries about fitting in, and clashes with Violet.On the journey, Lena and the girls visit Chicago skyscrapers, shop in New York stores, and ride the Twentieth Century train. On the Lusitania’s maiden voyage to Europe, Helen is plagued by two nosy gossips from Denver who mislead her about her mother’s whereabouts.In Paris, the girls escape Lena, visit bohemian Montmartre, and meet a fascinating photographer. A chic fashion designer encourages Violet to pursue a career in business. Sylvie, a groundbreaking African French artist, invites the girls to her artsy soirée, where Violet tries absinthe. Marion falls hopelessly in love with her art tutor Frank, a man with a history of breaking pupils’ hearts. Sylvie convinces Marion to not be controlled by others and to find her own artistic voice. In London, Lena and the girls attend the 1908 Olympics, and are swept up in the emerging suffrage movement by a radical young suffragette. Helen secretly rents a bicycle and conducts a fruitless search across London for her vanished mother.By the end of their travels, Marion, Violet, and Helen have the confidence to become an artist, a businesswoman, and a college student. They decide to rebel against what their parents consider suitable, and follow their own paths as women of the new century.