The Ladies' Lending Library

In August of 1963, the year of the sensational release of Cleopatra, the women of Kalyna Beach prepare for their annual end-of-season party. Sonia Martyn and her four daughters are part of a group of first-generation Ukrainian Canadians, newly minted middle-class families claiming their small part of the cottage-country dream. With their husbands away in the city all week, the women's days are ruled by the predictable rhythms of children and chores, lightened by the "racy" books they trade amongst themselves and by their Friday afternoon gatherings for gin and gossip. This is the summer when everything will change for the girls and women of Kalyna Beach, as innocence gives way to a sense of larger possibilities open to them all.