Iris and Lily are the lovably ingenuous youngest daughters in a family of fourteen, starving for attention as they struggle to survive in the chaotic, Catholic Capotosti household including, their hot-blooded father; Carlo. their submissiveness, overwhelmed mother Betty, and their half a dozen domineering brothers. Adding that to the inaccessabile older sisters makes the home a minefield of emotional pitfalls for the two neglected, exuberent girls. As Iris and Lily scrape their way through puberty to adolescence, outside forces begin driving a wedge between them. Growing up during the eruption of the women's movement of the '70s and desperate for love, Iris and Lily naively take refuge in marriages that push them worlds apart, altering their relationship as sisters dramatically. Told in alternating chapters in the voices of the two protagonists, sprinkled with episodes of comedy and tragedy this is the story of every woman who has memories of what it is like to be a little girl, then a

The Capotosti desire to evade reality, abandon conventions, and strive for something better keeps resurfacing, leading Iris and Lily down perilous paths from which there can be no return. After discovering her aptitude for the hospitality business, where she becomes acquainted with the finer pleasures of life she had only read about in novels, Iris carves out a career for herself in the luxury hotels of the Italian Riviera. But the more successful Iris becomes at her job, the more suffocated she feels by the pressure of her husband Gregorio and in-laws, who hold the dictates of familial duty above all personal needs and ambitions, making her easy prey for the men bent on distracting her from her marriage. Lily's dream of developing her talent as a singer, always ridiculed by her jealous husband Joe, is validated by her performance in the church choir, the only venue in which he will allow her to perform. Singing when she can, earning some sorely needed money at her part-time job, and c

The demands of marriage come crashing down on Iris and Lily, now living thousands of miles apart, both determined to gain the love and approval of their husbands and acquired families. The fairy-tale life Iris imagined herself living in Italy is abruptly put into focus by her over-protective husband, the respected anesthesiologist Gregorio Leale. Dottor Leale does not take kindly to alternative viewpoints or challenges to his authority, and is disturbed by displays of spontaneity and individualism, stifling Iris's budding sensuality and dampening her innate enthusiasm. Lily's circumstances as Mrs. Joe Diotallevi are even more daunting, as she struggles to comprehend the peculiar dynamic of the close-knit Diotallevi tribe and its protectionist politics. Traditional values distorted by ignorance dictate the simplistic rules of existence which effectively condone Joe's burgeoning gambling addiction and abusive behavior, leaving Lily dissatisfied as a woman, dismayed as a wife, and pinchin