The Lions of Fifth Avenue

In the most recent historical book by nationally renowned author Fiona Davis, a string of book thefts rock the venerable New York Public Library, leaving two generations of independent women to pick up the pieces.

In 1913, Laura Lyons appears to have it all: her husband, who works as the supervisor of the New York Public Library, gives their family access to an apartment within the opulent structure, and they are fortunate enough to have two children. However, driven and independent Laura is hungry for more, and her world opens up when she takes a chance and applies to Columbia Journalism School. As her studies take her around the city, she finds herself drawn to the new bohemian scene of Greenwich Village, where she meets the radical all-female club known as the Heterodoxy Club, where women are encouraged to voice their thoughts boldly about women's rights, birth control, and suffrage. Laura soon begins to doubt her conventional roles as a wife and mother. She is forced to face her changing priorities head-on and might just lose everything in the process when priceless volumes are taken back at the library, endangering the house and organization she loves.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan still struggles with her grandmother Laura Lyons's legacy as a well-known essayist, particularly now that she's secured her ideal position as a curator at the New York Public Library. However, as rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie is overseeing start to vanish from the library's renowned Berg Collection, the work swiftly turns into a nightmare. In an attempt to rescue the exhibit and her career, Sadie, who is generally afraid of taking risks, collaborates with a private security specialist to identify the offender. But when Sadie discovers some uncomfortable facts about her own family history through the investigation—truths that throw new light on the worst tragedy in the library's history—things unexpectedly turn personal.