Baker is the proverbial good girl-soon to be high school class of 1968 valedictorian and already accepted at Stanford University. She has buried her writing aspirations and instead plans to major in accounting to help her parents realize their dreams of wealth. She doesn't have time for a social life or boyfriends, as it's more important to keep those grades up and write for the school newspaper-her eyes have always been on the prize. That is until her older cousin is allowed to take her to a New Year's Eve concert in San Francisco.
May is Baker's opposite-she doesn't live at home with her parents, she is very liberated, and she thinks it time for her drippy cousin to grow up. She tells Baker that she's picking her up in an hour, and Baker gets permission from her strict but distracted mom, who is throwing a big New Year's Eve party. May drives up in a van loaded with college kids and hippies, and Baker starts talking to one of them who she's sharing space with. One thing leads to another (aided with drugs and booze) and they leave the concert and have sex. This continues for a few months as Baker revels in her new sexual freedom, but nausea and sore breasts are eventually linked with lack of period. The party is over and Baker refuses to tell the guy that he's going to be a father.
Baker has six more months of high school. She manages to conceal her pregnancy from her parents for a few weeks, but her mother figures it out. They are devastated-how embarrassing this scandal will be in front of their friends, not to mention the investment they made in her college and future earnings. But her mother came up with a plan-she was to return to high school and conceal her pregnancy until she graduates, then announce that she will be studying overseas until the baby is born, after which she will begin her studies at Stamford. Baker is going to a "home."
Her mother drives her to a large Victorian in San Francisco where she is to stay for the next four months. She meets the administrator, some of the instructors, and eventually the other residents, and becomes good friends with her roommate. The only thing the girls have in common is their condition-all are different ages, different backgrounds and beliefs, and different education levels, but they become closely bonded. Baker finds a community which she never expected nor ever had before. They discuss everything and are very careful not to disobey the house rules-at least in front of the officials, as they know things could get a lot worse for them. But what they are most worried about is what happens during labor and what will become of the babies.
Many historical novels emphasize the history over the novel, regarding the story only as a means of delivering the history lesson. This is not one of them. Schatz places her tale of young girls in trouble right around the time of the sexual revolution, and right before Roe v Wade, when the consequences of free love butt up against the new youth culture. Her characters do the best they can with the prudish values of the older generation, as they learn to make their own decisions and take their power back. Ironically, the reader knows that while things will be changing for the better in the 70’s, today’s loss of abortion rights brings us right back to the book’s dilemma.
Reviewed by Donna Ballard
March 3, 2026
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