Four years after World War I, seven years before the Great Depression, the novel is set at a time of great wealth and industry, classism and bigotry. The eugenics movement is embraced by an elite group of Americans as well as by a certain anti-Semitic demagogue in Germany; the 19th Amendment has been ratified, yet women are still controlled financially by men. And nonconforming females are often sent to asylums for what medical professionals term "hysteria."

Article at Star Tribune.