Margaret and Erika

To relieve a boring summer, Margaret and Erika volunteer to befriend Maureen, a mute, fourteen-year-old patient at Greenwich's Rillston Hospital. Her doctor knows only that she recently gave birth, and that her parents were murdered. Others believe she has information about the spy who stole America's greatest secret: the plans for the Trident submarine's nuclear missile.

Moved by the sight of Maureen's suffering, Erika reveals her own: that her sister and mother had been raped and killed by an enemy of her billionaire father and that she expects to share their fate. “This monster destroys all who know of his crimes, which now includes you,” Margaret is told.

This statement adds yet another to Margaret's pressing worries: her family's poverty; her father's illness; her boyfriend's fears; and whether, at fourteen, she is ready to have sex.

But the girls have allies too: Abram, Erika's devoted bodyguard, a former officer of Russia's elite anti-terrorist Vympel unit; Margaret's father, a lawyer; the Orisha God, Babaluaiye, Margaret's husband; and fourteen-year-old Randy who is the love of her life.