Ambitious and determined, Hallie Duer craves to be at the center of her epoch—with Prohibition and bootleg gin, Model Ts and moving pictures, Red roundups and the routine lynching of Negroes. The old order is in upheaval, and the emerging new order is at last allowing extraordinary women their long-deserved place in the sun.     In this uncommon love story, Hallie, a consummate observer by profession, learns to become a passionate participant when she falls in love with a dynamic Irish lawyer, who is married but separated from his wife. The course of their involvement is complicated by Catholic convention and a secret from the past. Cool-headed, self-possessed Hallie experiences an all-consuming love, but pain, disappointment, and forgiveness are part of that passion.