Summary of Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Original Book Plot:

Marian Graves is driven by a need for freedom and danger, from her days as a wild child in prohibition America to the blitz and glitz of wartime London, from the rugged shores of New Zealand to a lonely ice shelf in Antarctica.

She resists the pull of her childhood sweetheart and burns her way through a suite of glamorous lovers, determined to live an independent life. Her obsession with flight, however, consumes her the most.

Marian crashes and lands in a perilous ice wilderness just as she is about to fulfill her greatest ambition, circumnavigating the globe from pole to pole.

Over half a century later, troubled film star Hadley Baxter is compelled to play the enigmatic pilot. It is a role that will lead her to an unexpected discovery, shedding new and enthralling light on the mysterious Marian Graves.